It was Donald Trump who gained the presidential election in November. However after congressional Republicans bowed to Elon Musk’s calls for to successfully power a authorities shutdown, social media was lit up on Thursday hailing “President Musk,” “President-Elect Elon Musk and – nicely, you get it.
Customers on Meta’s Threads and to a lesser extent Bluesky served as counterweights to Twitter/X which, in fact, is owned by Musk and normally dominates in political moments like this.
At concern: Congress must move a authorities spending invoice by midnight on Friday or every thing however spending deemed important will stop, causing a government shutdown. A bipartisan deal was reached on Wednesday that included merciless concessions Republicans demanded, however they weren’t merciless sufficient for Musk. He demanded Republicans scuttle it, spreading falsehoods about it whereas additionally vowing retribution in opposition to anybody who voted for it.
Trump quickly echoed Musk’s demand, and on Thursday congressional Republicans obediently rewrote the invoice with even starker cuts, amongst them taking $190 million away from funding for pediatric cancer research. The invoice subsequently failed and as of this writing it’s wanting probably there might be a shutdown simply in time for Christmas.
Clearly there’s not rather a lot abnormal individuals can do about any of this besides make jokes. Which brings us to “President Musk,” an idea that primarily dominated conversations about all of this on Threads and Bluesky — and sure, on X/Twitter too.
Even elected officers acquired in on the jokes. Rep. Dan Godman for instance joked on MSNBC that Trump is “Chief of Workers” to “President Musk.”
And over on CNN Senator Elizabeth Warren made an identical joke — way more laconically nonetheless.
Rep. Robert Garcia went there too, quipping, “Welcome to the Elon Musk presidency, the place Donald Trump is now clearly the Vice-President.”
Learn on for extra reactions.
