According to a CNN analysis, A state of chaos that left many on Capitol Hill in a frenzy Thursday as an effort to stop a government shutdown was sunk by Republican infighting has been purposefully created.
And this is just the beginning of what is to come.
“Welcome to the new Washington,” said the network’s Stephen Collinson.
He was commenting after Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who has taken a position on President-elect Donald Trump’s shoulders, issued a warning that effectively destroyed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposed spending bill to avert a government shutdown.
However, while Trump appears to have played a key role in the disruption of D.C.’s smooth operation, he may have made a significant mistake. Collinson wrote that if he is to succeed in his plans, he must find a way to end the chaos.
“The Trump-Musk blocking maneuver plunged the capital into one of its classic year-end crises, pitched Johnson’s hopes of keeping his job into extreme doubt and offered a preview of the chaos that may churn in Trump’s second term,” according to Collinson.
Along with the end-of-year congressional mess, the Dow Jones experienced a historic 10-day losing streak, Trump’s contentious Cabinet picks face uncertainty, and threats of retribution against the incoming president’s perceived enemies have created unprecedented tension in the capital.
“For many of Trump’s supporters and boosters in the conservative media who are anticipating massive cuts to federal programs, the mayhem is the point,” according to Collinson.
“Even if the impasse results in a damaging government shutdown, that may represent progress for some, as the government is despised by the populist right.” And by challenging the Washington status quo even before taking the oath of office, Trump is doing exactly what he promised on the campaign trail.”
But, Collinson said, Trump now has to find some way to steady the ship if he wants to push through his key campaign promises, “even if that draws him into conflict with base voters and MAGA ideologues who seem happy to burn government to the ground.”
To do so, he must figure out how to control the world’s richest man, who has demonstrated significant power over the United States government. On Wednesday, Musk tweeted that any Republican who votes for Johnson’s plan should lose their seat in the next election.
Many saw it as the spending bill’s death knell.
Musk, the mega disruptor, is largely to blame for the uproar,” Collinson wrote.
“In his biography of the SpaceX pioneer, Walter Isaacson described the philosophy of the president-elect’s new super buddy as,” Take risks. Learn by blowing things up. “Revise. Repeat.
” … It was not immediately clear how closely Trump and Musk were coordinating. But the timeline of Musk’s pressure and the president-elect’s belated entry into the public fray offered demoralized Democrats an opening.
“New York Rep. Dan Goldman conjured a scenario on X clearly calculated to get under the president-elect’s skin. ‘As the shadow Pres-Elect, Elon Musk is now calling the shots for House Rs on government funding while Trump hides in Mar-a-Lago behind his handlers,’ Goldman wrote.
“‘It increasingly seems like we’re in for 4 years of an unelected oligarch running the country by pulling on his puppet’s strings.’”