They, Mr. Musk, are joking.
Some Republicans believe billionaire guru and occasional literal flamethrower Elon Musk could take the speaker's gavel in the wake of a revolt against House Republican leadership over government funding. I fantasize about sex.
“The Speaker of the House doesn't have to be a member of Congress,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) X is underlinedbecoming the first Republican to publicly ponder the idea in recent days.
“Nothing will disrupt this swamp more than electing Elon Musk…think about it…nothing is impossible. (Not to mention the joy of watching them disappear).
Although the constitution does not require the speaker to be a sitting member of parliament, no one other than a representative has ever held that leadership role.
Mr. Musk, 53, the world's richest man, was among conservatives over a bipartisan government funding bill that Congressional leaders introduced late Tuesday to avert a government shutdown from midnight Friday into Saturday. It played a role in provoking the.
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance then urged Republicans to withdraw the bill, urged Republican leadership to recalibrate, and urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), 52, to repeal the bill. It was a blow, and the bill was effectively dead on arrival. .
So far, the idea does not appear to have strong traction within the House Republican conference, with only a handful of lawmakers hinting at the possibility of Mr. Musk taking power in the House.
“I am willing to support @elonmusk as Speaker of the House. DOGE will only be truly achieved by reigning Congress and enacting true efficiency in government. needs to be shattered,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on X.
Other Republicans are I was privately furious This is due to Mr. Musk's intervention in the government funding scandal.
Last month, the 78-year-old president announced that he would appoint Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to co-head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is not an actual government department.
Greene, 50, leads the DOGE caucus in the House of Representatives.
Musk and Ramaswamy, 39, toured Congress earlier this month to brainstorm ideas with Republican lawmakers on how to root out government waste.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said “the writing is on the wall” and that new leadership in the House is “inevitable” and “will revolutionize everything.” I guessed.
“If that's the case, I think we need to step outside the box. I think we need to look elsewhere,” Lee told conservative host Benny Johnson. He spoke while nominating either Mr. Musk or Mr. Ramaswamy as the speaker. “Let me choose one of them, I don't care which one, to be the speaker.”
Democrats have similarly been toying with the idea, but it's a backhanded way to exploit infighting within the Republican Party, ostensibly to play on the egos of Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump and increase friction between them.
“If Elon Musk is like co-president here, why doesn't Trump give him the Oval Office, or if he just wants that billionaire to be president? Chairman Johnson “Maybe we should hand the gavel to Elon Musk,” said Rep. Greg Cassar (D-Texas). told reporters.
“Speaker Mike Johnson: It might be easier to hand the gavel to Mr. Musk,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). Swipe X.
“I don't have an answer right now,” House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) lamented to reporters when asked who he was actually negotiating with over government funding.
Republicans, with a shabby and unruly House majority, have struggled for the speakership in the past.
Infamously, at the start of this Congress, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took 15 rounds before winning the gavel.
About nine months later, he was ousted in a shocking insurrection, effectively shutting down the House for about a month as Republicans agonized over who would replace him.
Amid the impasse, some lawmakers floated Trump as a possible successor, but Trump refused to push. Johnson survived an ouster attempt earlier this year with a bailout from Democrats.
The chairman election will be held on January 3, 2025. There are concerns that the certification of the 2024 election on January 6, 2025, will be stalled if Prime Minister Johnson fails to take the gavel.
President Trump claimed that Johnson could “easily” keep his job if he got government funding back on track.
President Trump told Fox News: “If the Speaker can act decisively and forcefully and remove all the traps that the Democrats have laid that are destroying our country economically and in other ways, he will easily stay in office.” spoke.
