Lawmakers Want to Avoid a Shutdown. Will Elon Musk Let Them?

Republicans may need Musk’s sign-off if they want to pass a stopgap funding bill before next week. Rep. Rick Allen theorized, perhaps optimistically, that Musk is “not gonna say anything.”

Elon Musk

Musk’s allies on Capitol Hill are already offering some warning signs. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Lawmakers are scrambling to avoid a government shutdown, as members of both parties say they don’t want funding to lapse next week. But one person might not mind if Congress misses the deadline: Elon Musk.

“Sounds great,” he wrote last week on X of a potential shutdown.

Musk has already demonstrated his ability to derail Republican leaders’ plans and destroy spending bills, as he did in December when he led a revolt against a carefully crafted bipartisan funding plan. If Republicans can’t win over Musk — who still has tremendous power in Donald Trump’s White House — on their tentative plan to extend current funding levels for several more months, they could find themselves facing another social media mob and rewriting the legislation at the last moment.