X is raising prices for its top-tier subscription service by 37.5%, marking the largest price increase since the platform’s acquisition by Elon Musk in 2022. The Premium+ service costs $22 monthly in the U.S., up from $16, effective December 21, according to a company statement. Annual subscription cost has increased to $229 from $168. X […]
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Phoenix Mercury guard Natasha Cloud took a shot at Elon Musk and other billionaires in posts on social media on Sunday after the passage of a stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown.
Musk and President-elect Donald Trump led the conservative rebellion against the initial plan to avert a partial shutdown, a bipartisan deal that came from negotiations between the top two Democrats and Republicans in both congressional chambers.
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That bill, 1,547 pages, would have extended current government funding levels until March 14. However, GOP hardliners were angered by what they saw as unrelated measures attached to the bill, like a pay raise for congressional lawmakers, health care policy provisions and legislation aimed at revitalizing RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
It was scrapped as Trump and Musk threatened to force out of office any lawmaker who did not support pairing a CR with action on the debt limit.
It caused a huge controversy in the political arena hours before the House eventually passed the bill.
Cloud weighed in days later.
"So when y’all gone tell Elon to go back to Africa?" Cloud wrote on X.
"Im so glad ALL these billionaires have no idea how the 3 branches of government work….or how a bill gets passed into law. Shoutout to the 38 Republicans who shot the bill down in the House while being threatened & blackmailed."
All Democrats voted in favor of the bill, except Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who voted "present."
Cloud has been outspoken about the U.S. in the past. After Trump won the election, she took a swipe at women who voted for the Republican candidate.
"The privilege of celebrating rn is exactly what’s wrong with us as people," she added. "I am truly worried about my fundamental human rights.
"Racism, misogyny, and hatred of women are so deeply rooted into everything that is America. Until we fix the roots…it will never grow."
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Conservatives and allies of President-elect Trump are dismantling a narrative put forth by Democratic lawmakers such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren that Republicans blocked funding for childhood cancer research in the spending bill, pointing to a stand-alone bill that had languished in the Democratic-controlled Senate for months.
Congress passed a pared-down spending bill early Saturday morning as the government careened toward a prolonged shutdown. The bill’s passage followed tech billionaire Elon Musk and other Trump allies slamming a more than 1,500-page piece of legislation earlier last week as "outrageous" and "full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways and pork barrel politics," demanding lawmakers return to the negotiation table.
The Senate advanced a third version of a short-term funding bill on Saturday morning, following negotiations that whittled down the legislation to not include measures such as providing lawmakers a pay raise.
As negotiations were hashed out, Warren and other Democrats attempted to slam Republicans for allegedly blocking funding for childhood cancer research in the bill.
"We actually are now getting our first taste – this is it live and in living color – about what it means to have this DOGE," Warren said on CNN as the government prepared to shut down on Friday evening.
LAWMAKERS REACT TO STOPGAP FUNDING AND AVERTING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, is an upcoming presidential advisory committee that will be led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to cut excessive government spending and slash the size of the government under Trump’s second administration.
"Right out here, and what that's going to mean. And that's where Elon Musk's fingerprints are all over this. Because, for example, what this bill says is all, let's get rid of funding for research on pediatric cancer. Let's get rid of funding for research on early detection of cervical cancer and breast cancer. Let's get rid of funding for research on children with Down Syndrome and on sickle cell anemia. Let's get rid of those things so that we could make way for tax cuts for billionaires, that is Elon Musk's notion of efficiency," she continued.
PRESIDENT BIDEN SIGNS STOPGAP FUNDING BILL INTO LAW, NARROWLY AVERTING SHUTDOWN
While the Democratic Party’s war room published a press release declaring: "Trump and his MAGA minions in Congress have decided to threaten a government shutdown for his political gain – and now they’ve stooped as low as cutting child cancer research."
"Lyin’ Liz Warren aka Pocahontas," Musk shot back in response to Warren’s comments, referring to Trump’s common taunt against Warren.
Other conservatives and Trump allies slammed the narrative that the GOP blocked funding for childhood cancer research, pointing to a stand-alone bill that passed in the Republican-led House in March, and had for months languished in the Democratic-led Senate.
WHITE HOUSE PRESSED ON BIDEN REFUSING TO SPEAK PUBLICLY AHEAD OF SHUTDOWN
"Elizabeth Warren repeats the lie that @elonmusk and Republicans blocked funding for child cancer research. A stand alone bill for child cancer research funding passed the Republican controlled House in March and got held up in the Democrat controlled Senate," popular conservative X account Libs of TikTok posted in response to Warren’s CNN interview.
"Democrats blocked funding for child cancer research."
The House passed a stand-alone bill on March 5, at a vote of 384-4, that allocated millions of dollars per year for pediatric research through 2028. The bill was delivered to the Senate on March 6, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had not taken action on the legislation, sparking condemnation from conservatives months later that Democrats used the research funding as a "bargaining chip."
TRUMP-BACKED SPENDING BILL GOES DOWN IN FLAMES AS SHUTDOWN LOOMS
"Democrats are using children with cancer as political shields in the shutdown game to blame Republicans after using them as political shields to help defend all the slop Democrats wanted included in the bill. If this funding is so important, it can be passed on its own as a stand-alone bill. You know, like how the government is supposed to work, instead of cramming hundreds of useless proposals into the same bill as pediatric cancer research funding in a 1,500-page mess that no one actually reads so that you can attack anyone who doesn’t support the useless stuff by claiming they hate children with cancer," an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner outlined.
A review of the legislation shows that on Friday evening, the Senate passed the legislation by a voice vote, following condemnation targeting the GOP for allegedly blocking funding for the research.
The legislation extends $12.6 million a year in cancer research funding through 2031.
Fox News Digital reached out to Warren’s office for additional comment Sunday morning, but did not immediately receive a reply.
STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Elon Musk has stirred controversy in Germany after calling Chancellor Olaf Scholz an "incompetent fool" and backing the country's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
In a post on X, Musk first reshared a video by right-wing influencer Naomi Seibt in which she criticizes Friedrich Merz, one of the leading candidates to become Germany's next chancellor.
"Only the AfD can save Germany," Musk, who is the richest person in the world, wrote alongside the post.
Musk then weighed in on news of an attack on Friday on a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg that killed at least five people.
Musk reshared a post purportedly showing an image of the suspect that said the attack was a "DIRECT RESULT of mass unchecked immigration."
"Scholz should resign immediately. Incompetent fool," Musk added in a separate post.
Leading right-wing figures across Europe have seized on the incident to promote anti-immigrant rhetoric and call for tighter border controls.
Musk's comments, which come just two months before Germany is set to hold a snap federal election, have sparked backlash in the country.
Scholz appeared to respond indirectly at a press conference in Berlin, saying, "We have freedom of speech here. That also applies to multimillionaires. Freedom of speech also means that you're able to say things that aren't right and do not contain good political advice," per the Guardian.
Karl Lauterbach, the German health minister, said on X that Musk "should not interfere in our politics, adding that "his platform profits from hate and incitement and radicalizes people."
REUTERS/ Fabian Bimmer
The AfD party was established in 2013 as an anti-euro party, but it has since focused more on immigration and has been seen as increasingly far-right.
Musk, however, has previously questioned how far-right the party's policies are.
In a post on X in June, he wrote:"Why is there such a negative reaction from some about AfD?"
"They keep saying "far right", but the policies of AfD that I've read about don't sound extremist. Maybe I'm missing something," he added.
The Tesla CEO has shown growing support for right-wing leaders, including Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Nigel Farage, leader of the UK's Reform Party.
Earlier this week, Farage boasted that Musk was "right behind" him and hinted that the tech mogul might financially back his party.
Patrick Pleul / POOL / AFP via Getty; Rebecca Zisser/BI
Elon Musk has had a year for the record books.
His businesses have taken off, with Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, and Neuralink all touching new valuation highs. Their success has boosted Musk's net worth to above $450 billion for the first time, putting him over $200 billion ahead of the world's second-richest person, Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
Musk has also become a power player in US politics after wielding his cash and clout to help win Donald Trump a second term in office. As one of the president-elect's closest advisors, he's now gearing up to overhaul the US government.
The situation seems worse at X, formerly Twitter, after Musk's $44 billion takeover and reshaping of the platform sparked an advertiser exodus.
Take a look at Musk's 2024 in charts (all data is accurate as of Friday, December 20):
Tesla shares have shot up as much as 85% this year, driving the electric vehicle maker's market value above $1.4 trillion for the first time. They've since retreated but continue to trade near record levels.
The automaker has benefited from market buzz around artificial intelligence — which it's harnessing to develop self-driving cars and humanoid robots — plus a robust US economy and the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates.
Investors are also betting that Musk's businesses will benefit from his close ties to Trump, which could translate into less stringent regulations, government subsidies, tariff exemptions, and more.
SpaceX's valuation nearly doubled from $180 billion at the end of last year to $350 billion this month, based on the price paid by the company and its backers for employee shares in its latest tender offer.
Musk's rocket, spacecraft, and satellite communications company made several technological breakthroughs this year. For example, it plucked the first-stage booster of its new Starship out of the air using a massive pair of mechanical "chopsticks" in October.
Musk's net worth slumped in the spring as Tesla stock tumbled, dropping below $170 billion at its nadir.
But it rebounded by over $300 billion to touch an unprecedented $486 billion on December 17, as Tesla hit fresh highs and SpaceX notched a $350 billion valuation.
Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, was only founded in July 2023.
Yet it notched a post-money valuation of $24 billion in May following its Series B funding round. That rose to $50 billion in November, reports say, meaning the maker of the Grok chatbot is worth roughly as much as Monster Beverage.
It remains tricky to gauge the health of X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter that Musk took private in 2022. One way is to use Fidelity's monthly estimates of the value of its stake in the business.
The mutual fund giant's figures imply that X's valuation has crashed since Musk's purchase. The tech billionaire laid off a large part of the company's workforce and relaxed content moderation in support of greater free speech, triggering an advertiser exodus that hammered the company's revenues.
Regardless, Musk recently posted on X that the platform has roughly 1 billion active users, although around 40% of them only log on during important world events.
Musk was one of the biggest spenders in the US presidential election, deploying over $270 million to back Trump's race for president, run ads against Democrats, and promote conservative viewpoints.
His starring role in Trump's victory and emergence as one of the president-elect's closest advisors and a co-chief of the new Department of Government Efficiency suggests that his investment in the election has paid off.
Neuralink, Musk's neurotechnology company, was valued at $8 billion this summer, up from about $2 billion three years earlier.
The developer of brain-computer interfaces wants to allow people with quadriplegia to control computers with their thoughts. Musk released footage this spring of the first patient to receive one of its brain implants.
Senators voted to pass a new version of a stopgap spending bill early Saturday morning after the midnight deadline for a partial government shutdown came and went.
The Senate advanced the third version of a short-term spending bill by 85 to 11, and it will now head to President Biden's desk, who has already signaled that he will sign it.
An original agreement on a short-term spending bill was released earlier in the week, totaling 1,547-pages and including a number of policy provisions and disaster aid.
But soon after its release, billionaire Elon Musk and other conservative critics publicly blasted the measure, ultimately resulting in it being condemned by President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
SENATE DEMS RAIL AGAINST 'SHADOW SPEAKER' BILLIONAIRE ELON MUSK: 'NOT ELECTED TO ANYTHING'
"Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief," Trump and Vance said in a lengthy statement opposing the bill on Wednesday afternoon.
The initial spending measure would have extended government funding levels for fiscal year 2024 through March 14 and provide over $100 billion in disaster aid for those affected by storms Helene and Milton in the U.S. Southeast earlier this year. There was also a $10 billion provision for economic assistance to farmers in the bill.
Meanwhile, as of Thursday, the U.S. national debt was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and was continuing to climb rapidly.
SENATE REPUBLICANS TRY TO FAST-TRACK EMERGENCY MILITARY PAY AS THEY BRACE FOR SHUTDOWN
The size of the bill, along with several of its other provisions, including a cost of living raise for lawmakers, prompted the public reaction from Musk and others.
"Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!" he wrote on X.
After heading back to the drawing board, House Republicans emerged on Thursday with a new proposal. The revised measure would have extended current funding levels for three months and included a debt limit suspension for two years, per the request of Trump.
Additionally, it had economic relief for farmers and about $110 billion in disaster aid.
But the bill failed on the House floor Thursday night as Democrats united against it and a significant group of Republicans opted to oppose it as well.
TOP SENATE DEMS POUR COLD WATER ON LATEST GOP SPENDING BILL PLANS: 'READY TO STAY' THROUGH CHRISTMAS
"Old bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $0 increase in the national credit card. New bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $4 TRILLION+ debt ceiling increase with $0 in structural reforms for cuts. Time to read the bill: 1.5 hours. I will vote no," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on X ahead of the vote.
Roy was one of 38 House Republicans that opposed the stopgap bill.
By Friday morning, there appeared to be no agreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work together on a new bill. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the government would go into a partial shutdown at midnight if Republicans did not return to the original stopgap bill.
"I'm ready to stay here through Christmas because we're not going to let Elon Musk run the government," Murray said in a statement.
TIM SCOTT'S SENATE CAMPAIGN ARM STAFF REVEALED AHEAD OF CRUCIAL 2026 SWING STATE RACES
Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor that the original bill would pass in the House if Speaker Mike Johnson brought it to the floor for a vote.
The third measure, which ultimately passed the House and Senate, was similar to the one that failed the night prior. The bill included economic relief for farmers and disaster aid for those affected by recent storms. However, the final stopgap bill did not include a suspension of the debt ceiling, which Trump had requested himself.
The House passed the short-term spending bill with 366 yes votes, surpassing the necessary two-thirds.
A partial government shutdown began at 12:01 on Saturday morning after Congress failed to pass a stopgap spending measure before the deadline and send it to President Biden's desk.
However, the Senate is actively working through amendment votes and other considerations in order to send the measure to Biden. The stopgap bill is expected to be passed in the Senate in the coming hours.
The partial shutdown comes only days before Christmas and New Year's.
As of Thursday, the U.S. national debt was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and was continuing to climb rapidly.
During a partial government shutdown, federal agencies and non-essential services are stopped, but some functions that are considered "essential" will continue. Certain national security functions, such as border patrol, law enforcement and disaster response, will remain active during the shutdown.
However, because the Senate is expected to move the bill forward imminently, the disruption to government function will be minimal, if at all noticeable.
An original agreement on a short-term spending bill was released earlier in the week, totaling 1,547-pages and including a number of policy provisions and disaster aid.
TOP SENATE DEMS POUR COLD WATER ON LATEST GOP SPENDING BILL PLANS: 'READY TO STAY' THROUGH CHRISTMAS
But soon after its release, billionaire Elon Musk and other conservative critics publicly blasted the measure, ultimately resulting in it being condemned by President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
The initial spending measure would have extended government funding levels for fiscal year 2024 through March 14 and provide over $100 billion in disaster aid for those affected by storms Helene and Milton in the U.S. Southeast earlier this year. There was also a $10 billion provision for economic assistance to farmers in the bill.
TIM SCOTT'S SENATE CAMPAIGN ARM STAFF REVEALED AHEAD OF CRUCIAL 2026 SWING STATE RACES
The size of the bill, along with several of its other provisions, including a cost of living raise for lawmakers, prompted the public reaction from Musk and others.
After heading back to the drawing board, House Republicans emerged on Thursday with a new proposal. The revised measure would have extended current funding levels for three months and included a debt limit suspension for two years, per the request of Trump.
'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN' CAUCUS LAUNCHED BY SEN MARSHALL AFTER RFK JR MEETING
Additionally, it had economic relief for farmers and about $110 billion in disaster aid.
But the bill failed on the House floor Thursday night as Democrats united against it and a significant group of Republicans opted to oppose it as well.
By Friday morning, there appeared to be no agreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work together on a new bill. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the government would go into a partial shutdown at midnight if Republicans did not return to the original stopgap bill.
DOGE CAUCUS LEADER JONI ERNST EYES RELOCATION OUT OF DC FOR THIRD OF FEDERAL WORKERS
"I'm ready to stay here through Christmas because we're not going to let Elon Musk run the government," Murray said in a statement.
The House managed to pass a third version of the spending bill on Friday. It was similar to the second version, including both economic relief for farmers and disaster aid, but did not have the debt ceiling suspension that Trump had been adamant about.
The bill received broad bipartisan support in the House and the green light from Biden, as the White House said he'd support it. Even Schumer released a statement after the House's passage, saying he was "confident" it would pass the Senate.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
President Joe Biden signed a stopgap funding bill on Saturday that prevents a government shutdown. Senate lawmakers passed the bill minutes after the Saturday midnight deadline passed.
Earlier on Friday, House lawmakers voted 366 to 34 for the bill, with one Democratic lawmaker voting present. House Democrats provided significant cover for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who lost 34 Republicans on the measure.
The White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement on Friday that it had ceased shutdown preparations.
Trump downplayed the stakes of a shutdown, but it likely would have affected the transition of power and some planning for his inauguration.
Now that the bill has been signed into law, government funding will run through March 14, giving President-elect Donald Trump a little breathing room once he retakes office next month.
Republicans denied Trump's request to suspend or even eliminate the debt ceiling, which would have resolved a thorny political issue in advance of a likely GOP effort to extend Trump's 2017 tax law. According to Punchbowl News, Johnson said Republicans have agreed to address the nation's borrowing limit next year when the GOP will retake entire control over Washington.
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his fellow Democrats ultimately backed a deal stripped of many of the incentives initially included to garner more support among his party.
Elon Musk and other conservative activists opposed the initial bipartisan bill earlier this week, effectively killing it. Trump then urged Republicans to pass a pared-down funding bill and an extension of the debt ceiling. On Thursday night, 38 House Republicans and nearly every House Democrat voted against that plan, raising the stakes as a shutdown approached.
"The last 72 hours highlighted the positive impact that DOGE can have, but it also laid bare the massive lift ahead next year," Vivek Ramaswamy, who will co-lead Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" with Musk wrote on X, "We're Ready for It."
Musk also announced his support of the legislation before its passage. Johnson told reporters he had a brief conversation with him.
"The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances," Musk wrote on X. "It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces. Ball should now be in the Dem court."
The episode illustrated that significant divisions remain among Republican lawmakers that even Trump can struggle to paper over. Trump has ambitious plans for his second term, including the potential of using a special procedural power known as reconciliation to ram through tax extensions and border security measures. He'll only be successful if the GOP can remain almost entirely united.
Senate Democrats labeled billionaire Elon Musk "co-president" and "shadow speaker" among other titles as they reacted to the original stopgap spending deal's implosion on Wednesday after he and ultimately President-elect Trump came out against it.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Musk "seems to be the guy in charge of the country now," reacting to his apparent ability to influence the bill's prompt failure despite it having been agreed upon by bipartisan leaders in Congress.
If a measure to provide funding for the government is not passed by Congress and signed by President Biden by midnight on Saturday morning, a partial government shutdown will go into effect.
As of Thursday, the U.S. national debt was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and continues to climb rapidly.
SENATE REPUBLICANS TRY TO FAST-TRACK EMERGENCY MILITARY PAY AS THEY BRACE FOR SHUTDOWN
After a 1,547-page short-term spending bill was debuted this week. Musk quickly took to X to trash it, pointing out various seemingly irrelevant provisions as well as its cost and length.
He was soon joined by other critics, and Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued their own statement opposing the bill.
This led to significant criticism from Democrats unhappy with Musk's apparent ability to influence Trump and the Republicans in Congress.
TOP SENATE DEMS POUR COLD WATER ON LATEST GOP SPENDING BILL PLANS: 'READY TO STAY' THROUGH CHRISTMAS
"He's the one who seems to be calling the shots," Warren told reporters.
"Elon Musk is the one evidently in charge of the Republican Party and has blown that deal up. So I don't know how the Republicans are planning to recover from that," she said.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., suggested that Musk is "already the shadow speaker of the House," in a slight against House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
TIM SCOTT'S SENATE CAMPAIGN ARM STAFF REVEALED AHEAD OF CRUCIAL 2026 SWING STATE RACES
"I think he's unelected, and he's created a whole lot of damage," said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
He claimed Republicans in Congress were "busy listening to Co-President Musk and co-President Trump."
"I'm listening to the people of Georgia, especially the farmers who are struggling to get disaster relief. And, we need to make sure that we get that over the finish line," said Warnock.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., reiterated that Musk is not an elected official. "He doesn't have any official government job," he said.
'MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN' CAUCUS LAUNCHED BY SEN MARSHALL AFTER RFK JR MEETING
"We had a deal with Republicans in the House and now, because of him, the president-elect is on the verge of people losing their jobs and not getting paid over the holidays," Kelly said of a potential partial shutdown if a bill is not passed by a deadline of midnight on Saturday morning.
Despite their Democratic colleagues' claims, Republicans pushed back on the idea that Trump was being influenced by Musk. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., noted that there are "lots of people around President Trump," adding that he doesn't think Musk has control over what the president-elect does.
Musk was tapped by Trump, along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead what is called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a proposed advisory board tasked with eliminating government waste.
How did Elon Musk go from being an Obama supporter to a self-described "dark MAGA" Trump ally? Here's a look at the relationship between two billionaires ahead of the second Trump presidency.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre volleyed away reporters’ questions on Friday about President Biden’s lack of public appearances amid the ongoing government funding fight as a partial shutdown looms.
Jean-Pierre refused to answer why the president has not spoken to the American public about his position, and she instead blamed Republicans, President-elect Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and their "billionaire friends" like Elon Musk for the chaos on Capitol Hill.
"Why hasn’t President Biden said anything in the public about this? Don't the American people deserve to know why millions of federal workers could enter this holiday period without a paycheck?" Jean-Pierre was asked during her daily press briefing.
RAND PAUL SUGGESTS REPLACING MIKE JOHNSON WITH ELON MUSK AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
"All Americans need to know that Republicans are getting in the way here and they are the ones who have created this mess. That's the reality. That's the fact," she responded. "This is not the first time we've been here. And the president has had this approach before. He understands how Congress works. He's been around for some time. He understands what strategy works here to get this done."
Jean-Pierre said Friday that Biden has held phone calls with Democratic leaders in Congress — Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — but would not say if the president has spoken to the House speaker with regard to the ongoing discussions.
"He has been getting regular updates from his team. His team has been in touch with congressional members from both sides of the aisle," she said.
A streamlined version of a bill backed by Trump to avert a partial government shutdown failed to pass the House of Representatives on Thursday night.
The bill, which needed two-thirds of the House chamber to pass, failed by a vote of 174 to 235. The national debt has soared to over $36 trillion, and the national deficit is over $1.8 trillion.
Jean-Pierre said Republicans went back on their word and "blew up this deal."
"Republicans need to stop playing politics with a government shutdown. And they are doing the bidding. They're doing the bidding of their billionaire friends. That's what we're seeing at the expense of hard-working Americans," she said.
SENATE REPUBLICANS TRY TO FAST-TRACK EMERGENCY MILITARY PAY AS THEY BRACE FOR SHUTDOWN
"There is a bipartisan agreement that Republicans tanked because of what they were directed to do by Elon Musk and President-elect Trump. That's what happened. That is the reality that we're in now."
Musk, an outspoken critic of government waste, has weighed in on the spending bill debate and led a conservative revolt against the first 1,547-page bill due to its bloated spending provisions, calling for lawmakers who supported the bill to lose their seats.
He supported the newer, slimmer version, which was ultimately rejected by House members.
Reporters tried several different ways to try and get Jean-Pierre to comment on the president’s role in the matter, but she continued to sidestep.
"The president is the President of the United States, and he is leading," she told a reporter, to which he responded: "To be clear, the strategy is he is leading by staying in the background?"
"The strategy is that Congress, Republicans in particular, need to do their jobs and get out of their own way and focus on the American people, not their billionaire friends. That is what needs to happen. And that's what the president wants to see," she replied.
Jean-Pierre also warned that a shutdown could disrupt the presidential transition process for the incoming administration.
"If there is a shutdown — and I don't want to get too much into hypotheticals — but this is the reality, transition activities will be restricted with limited exceptions, obviously, such as to prevent imminent threats to the safety of human life or the protection of property," she said.
Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Friday that Republicans have a "good plan" to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., added: "I think you come to an agreement, then you get together and sit down and figure out, you know, if we can get across the finish line. And that's probably what we're about to do now."
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The debt ceiling is the unexpected debate in Washington this week after President-elect Donald Trump threw the annual holiday-season government-funding talks into disarray.
Trump said he wanted to raise or eliminate the limit on how much the federal government can borrow. Doing so now would mean the much-debated move would happen on President Joe Biden's watch and be resolved before Trump takes office, when he'll want to implement his agenda without a fight over borrowing limits.
"Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling," Trump wrote Friday in a Truth Social post. "Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.'"
This all comes amid a chaotic scramble to reach a funding deal for the US government and avoid a shutdown when Friday ends. The debt ceiling was one of the sticking points Trump used to scrap a bipartisan deal to keep the government funded through March. Now he's revisiting a much-used political tool.
"Trump is right to identify that he doesn't want his fingerprints on increasing the debt ceiling, and he doesn't want to have to deal with it in six months while he's trying to pass what he considers a must-pass tax-extension bill," Elizabeth Pancotti, the director of special initiatives at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute think tank, told Business Insider.
The debt ceiling limits the amount of money the federal government is allowed to borrow to pay for its programs and operations. If it's not regularly raised or suspended, the US government risks defaulting on its debt and failing to pay its bills.
This could compromise everyday Americans' access to crucial government programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, and housing vouchers. Len Burman, a fellow at the think tank Urban Institute, told BI that a default could also cause interest rates to rise drastically if investors no longer viewed the US government as a creditworthy borrower. That would mean Americans may face higher rates on mortgages and credit cards, which could lead to a broader financial crisis and deep recession.
Because of these widespread consequences, the debt ceiling has evolved into a political bargaining chip, and the US has repeatedly come close to breaching it over partisan disagreements, most recently in 2023. That's why some Democrats have long advocated abolishing the ceiling, arguing that Republicans weaponize it to push spending cuts. Sen. Elizabeth Warren capitalized on Trump's recent comments, writing Thursday morning on X that she agreed with him on terminating the debt limit.
During recent debt-ceiling standoffs, various plans to sidestep the limit were floated. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told BI that the president could invoke a clause in the 14th Amendment that would declare a default and the debt ceiling that caused that default unconstitutional.
Other ideas to eliminate the debt ceiling have included minting a $1 trillion platinum coin, which some economists have said would allow the Treasury secretary to deposit the coin to pay off debts.
In an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday, Trump said that Republicans who didn't support repealing the debt limit could face primary challenges; many Republicans have historically opposed getting rid of it, arguing that it's a check on borrowing. Trump told NBC News that Democrats had signaled they wanted to get rid of the debt limit and that he would "lead the charge" to do so.
The country will technically hit the debt ceiling at the start of next year, but the Treasury Department can hold off default and keep paying the bills through various accounting tricks, likely until late spring or early summer.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images; Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Elon Musk spent at least $277 million supporting President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates in competitive races in 2024.
Now, he says he plans to direct some of his largesse toward unseating Democrats in safer seats.
"Forgot to mention that I'm also going to be funding moderate candidates in heavily Democrat districts, so that the country can get rid of those who don't represent them, like this jackass," Musk wrote on X on Thursday evening.
Musk was responding to a clip of Rep. Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, speaking on the House floor about the billionaire businessman's singular role in tanking a government funding bill earlier this week. The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Neal represents a deep-blue district and has consistently won reelection by an overwhelming margin.
It's not clear whether Musk meant that he would fund a Democratic primary challenger or a general election candidate to run against safe-seat Democrats like Neal. A spokesman for Musk's main super PAC, America PAC, declined to comment.
Neal reportedly laughed when informed of Musk's threat on Friday, telling a reporter: "That's fine with me."
In a statement to Business Insider, the congressman said: "Everyone knows I'm always ready."
An X account for the Ways and Means Committee Democrats posted a dismissive meme in response to Musk's post.
https://t.co/tDIhXt6klM pic.twitter.com/Wf9AtNk9ti
— Ways and Means Democrats (@WaysMeansCmte) December 20, 2024
In 2024, Musk's super PAC spent more than $19 million in House races, backing Republican incumbents and candidates in competitive races across the country.
Ten of the candidates he supported were victorious, while eight lost.
Musk has said that America PAC will continue spending money in forthcoming election cycles, including the 2026 midterm elections and even local district attorney races.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Working at SpaceX in the company's earliest days was intense, but it may pay off for some hires.
Tough working conditions might tank some businesses, but not SpaceX. On December 11, Bloomberg reported that the Elon Musk-founded company was valued at $350 billion, making it the most valuable private startup worldwide.
The value comes after SpaceX and some of its approved investors struck a deal to buy up to $1.25 billion of employees' shares, offering $185 a share. Therein lies a partial key to SpaceX's overwhelming success.
Like many tech startups, SpaceX offered its early employees stock options as a financial incentive to keep them invested in the company's success — even when they were exposed to Musk's strict standards, his bouts of shouting when things went wrong, and his near-impossible timelines, space journalist Eric Berger reported.
In his new book "Reentry," Berger shares current and former employees' accounts of working 36-hour days, sleeping under their desks, urinating in buckets, dodging rattlesnakes, and injuring themselves on the job.
Stock options are a toss-up. They don't always end up being valuable. SpaceX was proving its value early, though.
"Even as far back as 2010, you could see that that had real value if you stayed there," Berger told Business Insider.
Offering stock options is a common strategy, especially for early-stage companies that don't have much cash for salaries, said Jorge Martin, head of the employee-equity plan provider North American branch of JP Morgan Workplace Solutions.
"When they are working these grinding hours, when they are traveling all over the world, when they're under high pressure," Martin said, "then all of that is worth it when you have an equity grant that can grow as the company grows and as the company succeeds."
Martin said he's occasionally seen startup employees become millionaires off their equity.
The promise of those stock options gave SpaceX a competitive edge in recruiting top engineering talent. In the scramble for new hires fresh out of college in the 2010s, SpaceX, Berger said, often competed with Blue Origin, a similarly ambitious rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos.
"They would poach people back and forth," Berger said.
Workers can turn shares into cash when a company gets sold or goes public — which SpaceX has not done — or when it does a "tender offer," allowing employees to sell their shares to other investors.
Blue Origin has a stock ownership program too, Berger said, but it's "considered virtually worthless because Bezos is probably never going to sell a significant chunk of the company. So those shares can never really be sold."
SpaceX, meanwhile, has given its employees multiple opportunities to cash in on their shares, including through the deal it struck this month.
SpaceX offered some of its early employees more than stock. Some truly believed in Musk's plans to build a human settlement on Mars.
Unlike a regimented job at NASA or a legacy aerospace corporation, a gig at SpaceX meant working hands-on with multiple ambitious rockets, spaceships, or engines — back to back or simultaneously.
"You're going to work super hard, but you're also going to get to work on cutting-edge stuff, stuff that's actually going to fly," Berger said. "After a few years there with that on your résumé, you can basically write your ticket anywhere in the industry you want to go."
For some employees, Berger found, the stock was icing on the cake.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Elon Musk has tried to downplay his influence in helping tank a government funding bill, and after Democrats started referring to him as "President Musk."
In a series of X posts on Thursday night, Musk tried to distance himself from Democrats' claims that he is now the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
Musk, who will co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency under President-elect Donald Trump, had criticized the first version of the spending bill earlier this week, calling for it to be "killed."
A revised spending bill that he helped usher in then failed to get enough votes, potentially setting the stage for a government shutdown.
"Objectively, the vast majority of Republican House members voted for the spending bill, but only 2 Democrats did," Musk wrote in response. "Therefore, if the government shuts down, it is obviously the fault of @RepJeffries and the Democratic Party."
Before the vote, Musk had posted: "First of all, I'm not the author of this proposal. Credit to @realDonaldTrump, @JDVance & @SpeakerJohnson."
All but 38 House Republicans voted for the revised bill, but it fell short of the two-thirds majority required to extend government funding until March.
Democrats seized on the opportunity to embarrass Trump by portraying him as a subordinate of Musk.
Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania said, "The leader of the GOP is Elon Musk," adding, "He's now calling the shots."
Rep. Greg Casar of Texas asked if Musk was "kind of cosplaying co-President here," adding, "I don't know why Trump doesn't just hand him the Oval Office."
Meanwhile, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democratic member on the House Appropriations Committee, said Republicans "got scared" because "President Musk said: 'Don't do it — shut the government down.'"
Others also weighed in.
"Welcome to the Elon Musk presidency," Rep. Robert Garcia of California said in a post on Thursday.
"It's clear who's in charge, and it's not President-elect Donald Trump," Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington added.
After Thursday's vote, Musk reacted favorably to a post that said the reason Democrats keep saying "President" Elon Musk was to "drive a wedge" between him and Trump.
Charlie Sykes, a political commentator and author of "How the Right Lost Its Mind," wrote that Musk had committed two cardinal sins: "upstaging" Trump and being responsible for an "embarrassing defeat."
"Trump must absolutely hate the whole President Musk thing," he added.
Brandon Bell/Pool via AP
Elon Musk is wielding his immense wealth and political power to pressure US lawmakers, shifting America from democracy to oligarchy, Sen. Bernie Sanders says.
In two recent X posts, the Vermont senator called out Musk's influence over Republicans and his warnings to legislators if they don't vote the way he wants.
"The US Congress this week came to an agreement to fund our government," he wrote late Wednesday. "Elon Musk, who became $200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, objected. Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk? This is oligarchy at work."
The US Congress this week came to an agreement to fund our government.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 19, 2024
Elon Musk, who became $200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, objected.
Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk?
This is oligarchy at work.
"Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is threatening to unseat elected officials if they do not follow his orders to shut down the government during the holidays," he said in a Thursday post. "Are we still a democracy or have we already moved to oligarchy and authoritarianism?"
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is threatening to unseat elected officials if they do not follow his orders to shut down the government during the holidays.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 19, 2024
Are we still a democracy or have we already moved to oligarchy and authoritarianism?
Musk blasted the funding bill in question as bloated and overcomplicated and wrote on X that "any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!"
He threw his weight behind Republicans' alternative bill, hailing it as cleaner and simpler. Moreover, he posted that it would be the Democratic Party's fault if an agreement isn't reached and the government shuts down.
Both Trump's team and Musk have pushed back against the idea that he's pulling Republicans' strings. Musk has said he's only bringing things to the attention of his followers, and they're free to voice their support.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's net worth hit a record $486 billion on Tuesday, up $257 billion from the start of the year — a figure that exceeds the fortune of the world's second-richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Tesla stock has slid since then, but Musk was still worth $455 billion at Thursday's close.
As Sanders wrote, Musk's wealth surged after President Trump's election victory as Tesla stock rode a broader market rally, and investors wagered the automaker would benefit from Musk's close ties to the White House. Additionally, SpaceX was valued at a record $350 billion this month, boosting the worth of Musk's stake in the rocket company.
Sanders has called out Musk several times in his criticisms of wealth inequality, which often single out billionaires for having too much influence and paying too little in taxes.
"Never before in American history have so few billionaires, so few people had so much wealth and so much power," he said in a clip from "Meet the Press" that he recently shared on X.
"We can't go around the world saying, 'Oh well, you know in Russia, Putin has an oligarchy," Sanders continued. "Well, we've got an oligarchy here, too."
The progressive lawmaker has also clashed with Musk's Big Tech peers. Sanders recently told Bill Gates that he was a "very innovative guy" who deserved to be financially rewarded for his contributions to society as Microsoft's cofounder — but not to the tune of billions of dollars.
"How much do you deserve? Can you make it on a billion? Think you could feed the family? Probably. Pay the rent? Maybe," Sanders quipped.
In response to Sanders saying billionaires shouldn't exist in 2019, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, now the world's third-richest person, agreed that "some of the wealth that can be accumulated is unreasonable."
Steve Granitz, Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images
Sam Altman and Elon Musk once started OpenAI together — but now their relationship is a lot more complicated.
In an interview with The Free Press on Thursday, Altman said his OpenAI cofounder was "clearly a bully" and said that Musk's high-profile feud with his former company had become a "sideshow."
Since stepping down from OpenAI in 2018, Musk has been highly critical of the AI startup and CEO Altman.
The Tesla boss refiled a lawsuit in August, arguing he had been "deceived" into starting the company by Altman and fellow cofounder Greg Brockman.
Musk has also asked a federal court to block OpenAI from transitioning into a for-profit entity, with OpenAI firing back by releasing a cache of emails showing Musk pushed for the AI startup to be for-profit while working at the company.
In the interview, Altman described Musk as a "legendary entrepreneur" who did a lot to help OpenAI in its early days.
"He's also clearly a bully, and he's also someone who clearly likes to get into fights," added the OpenAI CEO, pointing to the billionaire's high-profile spats with Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Altman also said he believes much of Musk's animosity is rooted in OpenAI's recent success and the fact that he now runs a direct competitor.
Musk announced xAI, his own AI startup, last year, and the company has since released several versions of its chatbot Grok.
"Everything we're doing, I believe Elon would be happy about if he were in control of OpenAI," said Altman.
"He left when he thought we were on a trajectory to certainly fail, and also when we wouldn't do something where he had total control over the company," he added.
Altman's comments come as Musk prepares to occupy an increasingly prominent role in the second Trump administration. Though Musk will have an influential political position, Altman said he did not believe Musk would use his power to go after his rivals.
"I think there are people who will really be a jerk on Twitter who will still not abuse the system of the country," he said.
OpenAI and Musk did not respond to requests for comment, sent outside normal working hours.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images and Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Elon Musk should learn more about air combat tech before publicly slamming crewed fighter jets as obsolete.
"I have a lot of respect for Elon Musk as an engineer," Kendall said on Thursday at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
"He's not a warfighter, and he needs to learn a little bit more about the business, I think, before he makes such grand announcements as he did," Kendall said.
Musk recently drew public attention for posting on X that crewed fighters, such as the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, were inefficient compared to drones and have a "shit design."
Calling the makers of the F-35 "idiots," Musk posted videos of drone swarms and wrote that crewed fighters would be shot down easily by modern surface-to-air missile defenses and enemy drones.
Kendall, who oversees the US Air Force's budget, said Musk's vision of drone superiority is many years away.
"It's provocative, it's interesting," he said of Musk's statements. "I can imagine at some point; I don't think it's centuries, by the way; I think it's more like decades when something like he imagines can occur."
"But we're not there," Kendall added. "And it's going to be a little while before we get there."
Musk did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
Kendall said he pushed the Air Force on a "key decision" to field drones that work in tandem with crewed fighters.
Still, he added the US may eventually reduce its planned purchases of the F-35, a fifth-generation fighter that Lockheed Martin manufactures, depending on how quickly other tech advances.
"Our inventory objective for the F-35 is 1,700 and some. I don't know what we'll end up buying, and nobody can predict that right now," the secretary said.
But he also doesn't think the F-35 will be replaced anytime soon, and said the US is still buying more of the aircraft for now and in the near future.
"It is dominant over fourth-generation aircraft. Period. And in a very, very serious way. It's not even close. And there's no alternative to that in the near term," he said.
The US has been looking into a sixth-generation fighter, also known as the next-generation air dominance program, that will focus on crewed jets that work collaboratively with drones.
Kendall said that if the NGAD program continues, it will still take years to produce that fighter in quantity, and it will be initially "very expensive" to manufacture.
It's unclear how Musk's views on the F-35 and drones may materially affect US defense spending. The billionaire has been made the cohead of a new Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to reduce what it sees as excess federal expenses.
Musk is in President-elect Donald Trump's close orbit and showed this week that he can wield considerable influence in Congress when Republican lawmakers followed his lead on trashing a bipartisan bill that sought to avoid a government shutdown.
Meanwhile, Kendall is expected to step down as Air Force Secretary when President Joe Biden, who appointed him, leaves office in January. The secretary expressed a desire in September to remain in his post as the Trump administration takes over.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The House of Representatives on Thursday failed to pass a stripped-down spending bill following a tumultuous 48 hours on the Hill, pushing the government closer to a partial shutdown right before the holidays.
Republicans in the House said they had settled on a new version of the continuing resolution ahead of the vote on Thursday after President-elect Donald Trump tanked a previous spending bill that initially won bipartisan support.
But the final vote was 174-235-1. Thirty-eight Republicans flouted Trump and voted against the continuing resolution.
On Wednesday, Trump came out hard against the original continuing resolution, urging Republican lawmakers to renegotiate the bill and threatening to primary those who failed to fall in line.
The president-elect's apparent turnabout came after billionaire Elon Musk publicly backed the idea of shutting down the government until the day Trump is inaugurated. Musk railed against the resolution, which he said included items unrelated to government funding, such as pay raises for lawmakers and pandemic preparedness.
Musk, who has been tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, celebrated the pared-down spending bill ahead of the failed Thursday vote.
"This shows how much your voice matters!" the Tesla CEO wrote on X. "And having a President like @realDonaldTrump means that your voice is finally heard."
This shows how much your voice matters!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2024
And having a President like @realDonaldTrump means that your voice is finally heard. https://t.co/0a7QDJx9zt
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seem to agree that Musk played a major role in killing the original bill. Some have expressed concern about the outsized influence Musk seems to have on Trump. The president-elect, for his part, has pushed back on suggestions that Musk is the one in control.
The continuing resolution that failed to pass on Thursday was smaller in scope than the original legislation. Among the items cut from the bipartisan resolution included funding for a child cancer research program, funding for research on premature labor, money for treatment of sickle cell disease, money for early cancer detection, a program for Down syndrome research, and an anti-deepfake porn bill.
The newer version of the resolution would have kept the government funded through mid-March and suspended the nation's debt ceiling until January 2027.
Trump encouraged Republican lawmakers to back the new version of the bill on Thursday.
House Democrats, on the other hand, expressed frustration about the series of events. CNN reported Thursday that Democrats could be heard chanting "hell no" during a caucus meeting ahead of the vote.
If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement, a partial shutdown would lead to suspended funding for many government entities and withheld paychecks for thousands of federal employees right before the holidays.
