President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk played a key role this week in blocking a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, railing against it in a flurry of more than 100 X-posts that contained several false claims the plan.
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“Trump has a hand in Musk,” John Mark Hansen, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, said in an email. “Trump has done this before, blowing up a bill at the last minute. This time, however, it looks like he’s worried about Musk overshadowing him. Now there’s a new social media bully in town pushing around the best social media bully.”
Hansen added: “We’ll see what impact Musk has when he’s confronted with reality – like when he suggests cutting ‘wasteful’ spending on other people, but not NASA’s Space-X contracts.”
Musk’s objections to the 1,547-page omnibus bill included misinformation about congressional salaries, federal funding and public health preparedness.
He claimed the plan calls for a 40% raise for lawmakers. However, according to the Congressional Research Service, the maximum salary boost possible under the proposal would have been 3.8%.
One way members of Congress can get a raise is through automatic adjustments, which take effect unless denied by law. Most members earn $174,000 a year, up from the last 2.8% boost in 2009. Congressional leadership is an exception, with the Speaker of the House earning the most at $223,500 a year.
The defeated bill removed a section of a previous budget bill that denied members of Congress that automatic pay raise. A maximum boost of 3.8% would have increased her annual salary by about $6,600 to about $180,000 per year.
Musk also shared a post from another user who falsely claimed the bill would provide $3 billion in funding for a potential novel stadium for the NFL’s Washington Commanders, commenting: “This should not be funded with your tax dollars!”
The bill included a provision to transfer control of the land on which RFK Stadium is located from the federal government to the District of Columbia. This transfer is necessary to pave the way for the Commanders to potentially build a novel stadium in the franchise’s aged home – although the team is still considering other locations.
However, the bill does not provide for such funding. In fact, it states that the federal government “will not be responsible for any payments or any costs or expenses incurred” by the District of Columbia upon completion of the transfer, other than responsibilities related to specific environmental issues.
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser on Thursday addressed false claims about the stadium’s funding, calling them “frustrating.”
“It has been stated that the CR has $3 billion set aside for a stadium,” she said at a news conference. “It’s all wrong. There are no federal funds associated with RFK’s transfer and, in fact, the legislation does not require or link a stadium at all.”
Bowser added that she has reached out to the Trump administration to correct misinformation on the issue.
In a third post, Musk falsely claimed: “We are funding bioweapons labs with this law!”
The plan included funding for up to 12 regional biocontainment research laboratories, but not for bioweapons production facilities. It stipulates that the laboratories will, among other things, conduct biomedical research to prepare for biological agents such as emerging infectious diseases.
A Musk spokesman did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.
Some members of Congress expressed dismay that Musk had spread misinformation about the bill.
“I love you, Elon, but you need to take five seconds to check your sources before highlighting the bottom-feeders looking for clicks,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas, wrote on X.
In a hastily called vote Thursday evening, the House of Representatives rejected a novel Trump-backed bill that was trimmed to 116 pages, with the bill failing by a vote of 174-235. Dozens of Republicans joined Democrats in opposition. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday afternoon that Republicans had reached consensus on a third spending deal, but gave no further details.
Trump led Republicans into the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 holiday season in his first term, and disrupted the holiday season in 2020 by pushing a bipartisan COVID relief bill and forcing a rerun.
