埃隆·马斯克帮助推翻支出协议，预示着他在特朗普政府中的权力
【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 20 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）尽管唐纳德·特朗普要到 1 月 20 日才上任，但他已经表现得像是在掌权一样。还有特朗普的超级亿万富翁支持者和政府效率顾问埃隆·马斯克，他本周点燃了社交媒体的导火索，帮助引爆了一项经过精心谈判的长达 1,500 页的两党支出法案，并在假期临近时将美国推向了联邦政府关闭的边缘。《波士顿环球报》记者Jim Puzzanghera 对此作了下述报道。
有一句政治谚语说，一个国家一次只能有一位总统。但现在，美国似乎有三个总统：一个跛脚鸭、一个当选总统和世界上最富有的人。
拜登总统即将离任。尽管唐纳德·特朗普要到 1 月 20 日才上任，但他已经表现得像是在掌权一样。还有特朗普的超级亿万富翁支持者和政府效率顾问埃隆·马斯克，他本周点燃了社交媒体的导火索，帮助引爆了一项经过精心谈判的长达 1,500 页的两党支出法案，并在假期临近时将美国推向了联邦政府关闭的边缘。
愤怒的民主党人已经称他为马斯克总统。一些共和党人甚至提出让他担任下一任众议院议长（合法但牵强）。周四，震惊的华盛顿两党议员都在努力应对马斯克在特朗普政府中拥有重大权力和影响力的可能性——这可能会加剧特朗普的冲动，而这种冲动已经倾向于在国会大厦引起骚动。
“我其实并不认为唐纳德·特朗普搞砸了这件事，”康涅狄格州民主党参议员克里斯·墨菲在谈到短期预算协议时表示。“埃隆·马斯克和他的亿万富翁朋友们搞砸了它。”
共和党的支出计划遭到了新英格兰众议院所有议员的否决
马斯克在亿万富翁榜单上名列前茅，无论是净资产还是现在的政治权力，他都把自己的明星地位归功于特朗普，并投入了据报道 2.77 亿美元帮助特朗普和其他共和党人在 11 月当选。现在，这位 SpaceX 创始人兼特斯拉首席执行官已经证明了他的金钱、扩音器和错误信息可以像火箭助推器一样助长特朗普典型的混乱局面。
一些共和党人说这可能是件好事。
“我认为美国公众和特朗普的支持者已经厌倦了一切如常，”即将离任的印第安纳州参议员迈克·布劳恩说。“我认为特朗普是它的政治体现。[马斯克] 是它的企业家精神，是它的现实世界体现。”
周三凌晨 4:15，马斯克以企业家的现实主义风格，在他的社交媒体平台 X 上向他的 2.08 亿粉丝发布了一条五字信息：“这项法案不应该通过。”
他花了一整天时间通过发帖和转发来抨击这项法案，包括谎称法案中包含了华盛顿特区足球场的资金（它只授权转让联邦财产用于可能的足球场）和 40% 的国会加薪（这是 3.8% 的生活成本增长）。
因此，一项经过艰苦谈判的法案似乎将在本周末关闭期限迫在眉睫时迅速获得批准，但却遭到了越来越多的共和党反对。
“我当时正在和人们谈论其他问题，突然间，有人说，‘埃隆·马斯克发了这条推文。我们有麻烦了’，”来自伯恩的民主党众议员比尔·基廷周三在众议院看到共和党人阅读马斯克的社交媒体帖子时说道。
到周三下午晚些时候，特朗普在自己的社交媒体上发帖，有效地否决了这项法案。
“共和党人必须变得聪明和强硬，”他在自己拥有的社交媒体平台 Truth Social 上写道。“如果民主党人威胁要关闭政府，除非我们给他们他们想要的一切，那么就揭穿他们的虚张声势。”
马斯克迅速宣布胜利。
“人民的声音被听到了，”他在 X 上发帖说。“这对美国来说是美好的一天。”
民主党人不这么认为。
“这项两党协议现在被引爆了，因为众议院共和党人被命令关闭政府，伤害了他们中许多人假装想要帮助的工薪阶层美国人，”众议院民主党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯周四表示。
当被问及众议院议长迈克·约翰逊与他谈判的协议破裂后谁负责众议院共和党人时，杰弗里斯回答说：“这是一个很好的问题。我现在不知道答案。”
这是共和党为明年全面控制华盛顿做准备时其他议员正在考虑的问题。
周四晚上，约翰逊发布了一项缩减版的短期支出法案，其中包括特朗普提出的一项新要求：暂停国家债务上限两年。约翰逊为自己辩护。包括国会生活成本增加在内的有争议的项目以及其他一系列项目被删除，法案篇幅缩减至 116 页。民主党没有参与新一轮谈判
“这是华盛顿。这就是立法的方式，”约翰逊告诉记者。“这是一个漫长的过程。”
这还需要一段时间。
这项新法案需要三分之二多数票才能快速通过，但在周四晚上以惨败告终，在几乎所有民主党人和一些共和党人联合起来反对后，它甚至无法获得简单多数票。
“马斯克-约翰逊的提议并不严肃。这太可笑了，”杰弗里斯在投票前告诉记者。“极端的‘让美国再次伟大’共和党人正在逼我们关门。”
特朗普已任命马斯克与企业家维韦克·拉马斯瓦米共同领导尚未成立的政府效率部（DOGE）。马斯克表示，他认为他们可以将国家 6.5 万亿美元的年度预算削减 2 万亿美元。
这一职位，加上马斯克经常出现在特朗普的圈子里，使他在下一届政府中扮演了一个不明确但似乎很重要的角色。周三的事件还展示了马斯克的另一个政治权力来源：他的财富。马斯克威胁任何支持最初协议的人都会在初选中受到挑战，考虑到他在今年的选举中投入了数亿美元，这是一个重大威胁。
阿拉巴马州共和党参议员汤米·图伯维尔是特朗普的坚定支持者，当被问及是马斯克还是特朗普否决了这项两党资助协议时，他停顿了片刻。
“嗯，”他说。“我认为两者都有一点。”
特朗普周四坚称，他已允许马斯克攻击该法案。 “我告诉他，如果他同意我的观点，他可以发表一份声明，”特朗普告诉美国广播公司新闻。
特伯维尔表示，他不确定特朗普的选民是否期望马斯克在他的政府中扮演这样的角色，“但我认为他们很高兴他这么做。”
“这是来自一个在数字方面做得相当不错的人的另一种观点，”特伯维尔说。“他有点像这里没有投票权的人。他说你不能继续花钱。我们就是没有钱。他说的话很有常识，这就是我喜欢的。”
但他认为特朗普仍然在发号施令。作为一名前大学橄榄球教练，特伯维尔同意特朗普就像主教练的比喻，马斯克是他的进攻协调员。“而维韦克是他的防守协调员，”特伯维尔补充道。
一些国会共和党人希望马斯克发挥更大的作用。
“我愿意支持@elonmusk担任众议院议长，”众议员Marjorie Taylor Greene周四在X上写道。“只有通过控制国会来实现真正的政府效率，DOGE才能真正实现。建制派需要像昨天一样被粉碎。”
参议员兰德·保罗是肯塔基州共和党人，也是政府资助协议的长期反对者，他也提出了让马斯克担任众议院议长的想法。虽然可能性极小，但这表明党内一些人对他评价很高。
周四，沮丧的民主党人对两党协议的失败感到愤怒，因为众议院共和党领导人正在制定一项替代法案，该法案将让特朗普——大概还有马斯克——满意，让联邦政府在周六凌晨12点资金到期前保持开放。
众议员罗莎·德劳罗是康涅狄格州民主党人，曾参与最初的协议，她表示没有理由废除这项两党法案。
“我们失去了一些，他们也失去了一些，但我们达成了一项人们能够支持的良好协议，”她在谈到两党谈判时说道。“我们支持它，但支持马斯克总统。”
题图：从左至右，众议院议长迈克·约翰逊、当选总统唐纳德·特朗普、埃隆·马斯克和当选副总统 JD Vance 于周六出席了在马里兰州兰多弗西北体育场举行的陆军-海军大学橄榄球比赛。Kevin Dietsch/Getty
附原英文报道：
In helping upend spending deal, Elon Musk foreshadows his power in Trump’s administration
By Jim Puzzanghera Globe Staff,Updated December 19, 2024
From left, House Speaker Mike Johnson, President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vice President-elect JD Vance attended the Army-Navy college football game at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., on Saturday.Kevin Dietsch/Getty
WASHINGTON — A political adage says the nation can only have one president at a time. But right now, the United States seems to have three of them: a lame duck, a president-elect, and the world’s richest person.
President Biden is on his way out. Donald Trump is already acting like he’s in charge even though he won’t take office until Jan. 20. And then there’s Elon Musk, Trump’s mega-billionaire supporter and government-efficiency adviser, who lit the social media fuse this week that helped detonate a carefully negotiated, 1,500-page bipartisan spending bill and put the nation on the brink of a federal government shutdown as the holidays approach.
Angry Democrats already are calling him President Musk. A few Republicans even floated the idea he be the next House speaker (legally possible but far-fetched). And shell-shocked Washington lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were grappling Thursday with the likelihood that Musk will wield significant power and influence in the Trump administration — possibly amplifying Trump’s impulses that already tend to cause tumult in the Capitol.
“I don’t actually think Donald Trump blew this up,” Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said of the short-term budget deal. “Elon Musk and his billionaire friends blew it up.”
GOP spending plan was rejected by every New England House member
Musk is at the top of that billionaire list, in net worth and now political power, after hitching his star to Trump and pumping a reported $277 million into getting him and other Republicans elected in November. Now, the SpaceX founder and Tesla chief executive has demonstrated how his money, megaphone, and misinformation can act like a rocket booster to the typical Trump chaos.
Some Republicans said that might be a good thing.
“I think the American public and Trump supporters are fed up with business as usual,” said outgoing Indiana Senator Mike Braun. “I think Trump is a political manifestation of it. [Musk] is kind of the entrepreneurial, real world manifestation of it.”
In entrepreneurial, real-world style, Musk posted a five-word message to his 208 million followers on his social media platform X at 4:15 a.m. Wednesday: “This bill should not pass.”
He spent the rest of the day hammering away at the legislation with posts and reposts, including falsely saying it contained money for a football stadium in Washington, D.C. (it only authorized the transfer of federal property for a possible one) and a 40 percent congressional pay raise (it was a 3.8 percent cost of living increase).
And so, a hard-negotiated bill that appeared headed for quick approval as the shutdown deadline loomed at the end of the week instead drew more and more Republican opposition.
“I was talking to people on other issues and all of a sudden it was just like it seeped out, ‘Elon Musk tweeted this. We’re in trouble,’ “ said Representative Bill Keating, a Bourne Democrat who watched Republicans reading Musk’s social media posts on the House floor Wednesday.
By late Wednesday afternoon, Trump weighed in with his own social media post effectively killing the bill.
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,’” he wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns. “If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF.”
Musk quickly declared victory.
“The voice of the people was heard,” he posted on X. “This was a good day for America.”
Democrats didn’t think so.
“That bipartisan agreement has now been detonated because House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt the very working class Americans that many of them pretend to want to help,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday.
Asked who was in charge of House Republicans after the deal Speaker Mike Johnson negotiated with him blew up, Jeffries responded, ”That’s a great question. I don’t have the answer right now.”
That was a question other lawmakers were contemplating as Republicans prepare for full control of Washington next year.
Johnson defended himself Thursday night after he released a much scaled-down short-term spending bill that included a new demand from Trump: suspending the nation’s debt limit for two years. The controversial items, including the congressional cost of living increase, were dropped, along with a slew of others to reduce the bill’s size to 116 pages. Democrats were not involved in the new round of negotiations
“This is Washington. This is how law-making is done,” Johnson told reporters. “It’s a long process.”
It’s going to take a while longer.
The new bill, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass on an expedited basis, failed spectacularly Thursday night, unable to even get a simple majority after almost all Democrats joined with some Republicans to oppose it.
“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It’s laughable,” Jeffries told reporters before the vote. “Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a shutdown.”
Trump has named Musk to co-head a yet-to-be-created Department of Government Efficiency — dubbed DOGE — along with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk has said he thinks they can cut $2 trillion from the nation’s $6.5 trillion annual budget.
The position, along with Musk’s frequent presence in Trump’s orbit, sets him up for an undefined but seemingly major role in the next administration. Wednesday’s episode also demonstrated Musk’s other source of political power: his wealth. Musk threatened primary challenges to anyone who supported the original deal, a major threat given the hundreds of millions of dollars he poured into this year’s election.
Senator Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican and strong Trump supporter, paused a few moments when asked if Musk or Trump had killed the bipartisan funding deal.
“Mmmm,” he said. “I think it was a little of both.”
Trump asserted Thursday that he had given Musk permission to attack the bill. “I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement,” Trump told ABC News.
Tuberville said he’s not sure if Trump voters expected Musk to play this kind of role in his administration, “but I think they’re glad he did.”
“It’s another perspective from somebody that’s done pretty well with numbers,” Tuberville said. “He’s kind of like the people that don’t have a vote up here. He’s saying you can’t keep spending the money. We just don’t have it. He speaks from common sense and that’s what I like.”
But he thinks Trump is still calling the shots. A former college football coach, Tuberville agreed with the analogy that Trump was like the head coach, with Musk as his offensive coordinator. “And Vivek’s his defensive coordinator,” Tuberville added.
Some congressional Republicans want Musk to have an even bigger role.
“I’d be open to supporting @elonmusk for Speaker of the House,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X Thursday. “DOGE can only truly be accomplished by reigning in Congress to enact real government efficiency. The establishment needs to be shattered just like it was yesterday.”
Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and perennial opponent of government funding deals, also suggested the idea of Musk as House speaker. And although it’s highly unlikely, it’s an indication of how highly some in the party view him.
Frustrated Democrats seethed Thursday about the failure of the bipartisan deal as House Republican leaders worked on a replacement bill that would satisfy Trump — and presumably Musk — to keep the federal government open before funding expires at 12 a.m. Saturday.
Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who worked on the initial deal, said there was no reason that the bipartisan bill should have been scrapped.
“We lost some, they lost some, but we put together a good agreement that people could support,” she said of the bipartisan negotiations. “And we were there to support it, but for President Musk.”
