Musk Backs Johnson for Speaker

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The tech tycoon endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson hours after Trump threw his support behind him.

Tech tycoon Elon Musk endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to retain the speaker’s gavel on Dec. 30, just days before members are slated to put the matter to a vote.

Musk’s declaration of support for Johnson came hours after President-elect Donald Trump gave the speaker his “complete and total endorsement,” saying he is “a good, hard-working, religious man.”

“I feel the same way!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, noting that Johnson had his “full support.”

The endorsement may surprise some after Musk voiced his opposition to the now derailed spending deal that Johnson brokered with congressional Democrats earlier this month.

Comprising more than 1,500 pages, the bill sought to combine a short-term extension of government funding with numerous other policy proposals and provisions, including a pay raise for members of Congress, while not addressing the issue of the impending debt ceiling deadline.

Musk, a Trump ally with a massive following on X, urged lawmakers to kill the bill in a flurry of social media posts.

“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” he wrote in one missive.

After Musk’s opposition, followed by that of Trump, Johnson and fellow lawmakers scrambled to piece together an alternative deal and prevent a government shutdown.

Meanwhile, Musk’s efforts earned him the praise of Congress’s more conservative faction, and several lawmakers floated the possibility of making him the new House speaker.

“Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said, noting that the speaker does not need to be a member of Congress.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has a rocky working relationship with Johnson, likewise said she would be “open to supporting” Musk as speaker.

Musk has already accepted Trump’s offer to lead the new cost-cutting advisory body dubbed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Johnson needs the support of a majority of the House to win reelection as speaker. When the election takes place on Jan. 3, 219 Republicans and 215 Democrats are expected to present, with one vacancy due to former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) resignation.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has said no Democrats will vote for Johnson. That means the Louisiana congressman can only afford to lose one Republican vote if he is to reach the 218-vote threshold required.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has already said he will not support Johnson for speaker.

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), meanwhile, said she needs “assurances” that Johnson “won’t sell us out to the swamp.”

Issuing a list of demands, Spartz called on the speaker on Dec. 30 to outline his plan for implementing Trump’s agenda.

“We must have a vision and a concrete plan to deliver on President Trump’s agenda for the American people, which I have not seen from our current speaker despite countless discussions and public promises,” she said.