Trump's "billionaire sidekick" Elon Musk doesn't have any grasp of how Congress works — and by threatening and attacking any member who criticizes him, he's wrecking any chance he has of actually building a productive working relationship with the lawmakers he needs, Jill Lawrence wrote for The Bulwark on Tuesday.
The best demonstration of this, Lawrence continued, was the drama that unfolded earlier this month when Musk torpedoed a bipartisan spending agreement, lashing out at provisions like a land deal for D.C. that was ironically brokered by a top Republican, Rep. James Comer (R-KY).
The real fireworks, however, came about because he stripped national security provisions on China that happened to cost his businesses money.
"Musk’s success in protecting his own interests did not go unnoticed. 'The Shanghai plant is Tesla’s largest car manufacturing facility — the Chinese gigafactory produced about 50 percent of Tesla’s global automobile output over the last year,' Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, wrote in a letter to congressional leaders," Lawrence reported.
"She suggested Musk’s China ties and investments could have been the rationale for his frenzied campaign to turn Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and other GOP leaders against 'a bipartisan, bicameral negotiated funding deal that included this provision.'"
Musk responded by attacking her by name and demanding her removal from Congress.
"He clearly did not consider or care that they might agree on some future issue and she would be a useful partner. Like Trump, he sees politics as a zero-sum game, presidents as business owners, and Congress as employees," Lawrence wrote. "Neither Musk nor Trump accepts that all members of Congress are election winners with constituents, concerns, and responsibilities of their own. They don’t understand House or Senate rules and cross-pressures, or the importance of trust among party leaders and negotiators. Nor do they tolerate compromise. They want to impose their will, period."
Even diametrically opposed ideological foes have to come together sometimes to find common ground to get anything done, like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) teaming up to try to rein in drug middlemen and establish a right to repair for cars.
Musk and Trump are going out of their way to antagonize people over minor fights, and burning bridges for the future that would get them wins on other issues, Lawrence wrote.
Even worse, "In their first post-election, pre-inauguration outing, Trump and Musk not only blew up the carefully negotiated bipartisan funding agreement, they undermined the working relationship between [Speaker Mike] Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries," she wrote. That matters because last time there was a revolt in the GOP caucus to throw out Johnson, Democrats gave the votes to save him, and that's off the table now. And if the GOP can't unify behind Johnson, it could lead to chaos and a potential delay of Trump's own certification as president.
