Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul thinks the world’s richest man ought to lead the U.S. Home of Representatives throughout subsequent yr’s Congress as a result of—why the hell not?
In a Thursday put up to X, Paul steered that megabillionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk needs to be the Republicans’ subsequent decide for the management function, which is at the moment held by Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson.
“The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress,” Paul posted on Thursday. “Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk … think about it … nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds).”
Paul is right about one factor at the least: The speaker of the Home doesn’t should be a member of Congress. The Structure states solely that “the House of Representatives shall chuse their speaker and other officers.” Nevertheless, a nonmember has by no means been elected to the put up.
Whereas it’s unlikely that Paul’s MAGA fantasy will come true, that hasn’t stopped different Republicans from publicly endorsing this ludicrous thought.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene quoted Paul’s tweet and added that she, too, can be “open” to having Musk function Home Speaker.
“DOGE can only truly be accomplished by reigning in Congress to enact real government efficiency,” mentioned Inexperienced, referring to the toothless advisory fee often called the Division of Authorities Effectivity, which billionaires Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are anticipated to go. “The establishment needs to be shattered … This could be the way.”
Then, throughout an interview on Thursday, Utah Sen. Mike Lee echoed the sentiment.
“I think we go outside the box,” Lee mentioned on a right-wing podcast. “I propose Elon Musk or Vivek Ramaswamy. The DOGE movement is extremely popular in the House.”
Lee added that electing one of many two billionaires to the function would “revolutionize everything.”
What’s gone unsaid in these statements, although, is that even with out the speakership, Musk has undue affect over President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Celebration as a complete. Musk not too long ago helped tank a essential spending invoice, calling it a “steal of your tax dollars.” And whereas Johnson tried to tamp down the DOGE dork’s anger, he might must grovel some extra earlier than the unelected, unofficial, purely advisory leaders of DOGE for at the least a couple of extra weeks—if not months or years.
Johnson’s preliminary effort to appease Musk got here too late, although. After the Tesla CEO whipped up outrage—largely by way of X, Musk’s social media platform, which was previously often called Twitter—towards the invoice, Trump and incoming Vice President J.D. Vance issued a joint assertion equally slamming it.
Some Democrats have speculated that it wasn’t Trump who initially wished to destroy the funding invoice. As an alternative, Trump kowtowed to Musk’s calls for.
“Donald Trump has been completely AWOL during these negotiations,” mentioned Rep. Daniel Goldman, a New York-based Democrat. “Only after Elon Musk publicly tweets about his displeasure about this budget deal, all of a sudden Donald Trump … comes trotting in and blows up the deal.”
Musk has not but commented on whether or not he’d be serious about changing into the chamber’s subsequent chief, which the physique will elect on Jan. 3. But when he have been, he’d possible face competitors from one in all his texting buds: Johnson. The Louisiana Republican was elected speaker October 2023, after some far-right Home members engineered the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
However now, with a authorities shutdown looming, some Republicans have pledged to not vote to reelect Johnson in 2025.
Given the Republicans’ razor-thin majority within the Home, Johnson can’t afford various GOP defections, assuming all different members are current and voting. With Rep. Matt Gaetz not serving as a member of Congress, Republicans are set to have 219 seats—or 218, relying on the way you depend Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana—firstly of the following Congress. This compares with Democrat’s 215 members.
What’s extra, the weak spot Johnson has to date proven in struggling to go this important laws will draw solely extra naysayers to the murky waters he should navigate if he needs to take care of management of the gavel.
What may assist Johnson is the truth that some Home Republicans are privately aggravated at Musk for intervening within the finances course of. (In spite of everything, he’s not a member of Congress and may’t truly vote on this factor.) Plus, of the three lawmakers who’ve endorsed Musk for the speakership, two are elected to the Senate, which means they received’t get to vote on whom Home Republicans elect. There’s additionally no consensus on a possible successor among the many Home Republican caucus.
Then there’s the Trump impact.
On Thursday, the president-elect expressed confidence that Johnson will “easily remain speaker” if he “acts decisively and tough” on the spending package deal. (However who actually is aware of what which means?) Certainly, it’s a feather in Johnson’s cap that he nonetheless—considerably shockingly—has Trump’s stamp of approval.
Nicely, at the least he does for now.
