Rand Paul Floats Elon Musk for House Speaker: ‘Disrupt the Swamp’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) floated Elon Musk on Thursday as the next speaker of the House.

Musk, President-elect Donald Trump’s chief to cut government waste, successfully placed tremendous pressure on Republican House leadership to scrap Wednesday’s spending measure in a series of X posts.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democrats filled the continuing resolution with a large amount of pork that mirrored an omnibus bill, Breitbart News’s Bradley Jaye reported:

Johnson’s 1,547-page year-end spending deal, released Tuesday night after days of extended deadlines, fell apart in less than 24 hours as Republicans of all ideological stripes turned on the bill over its contents and Johnson’s mishandling of negotiations and the rollout.

Conservatives, moderates, loyal rank-and-file Republicans, and even a committee chairman savaged the bill for giving far too much to Democrats.

President-elect Donald Trump and soon-to-be Vice President JD Vance released a statement Thursday afternoon urging Republicans to pursue a clean continuing resolution with only an add-on addressing the debt ceiling.

Following the collapse, Paul appeared to back Musk for speaker.

“The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress,” Paul posted on X. “Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk . . . think about it . . . nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds).”

Johnson’s speakership appears to be in jeopardy.

Punchbowl reported Wednesday evening on Johnson’s precarious position:

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) already said he wouldn’t back Johnson for speaker. Massie had been leaning that way but said this latest CR debacle was a “tipping point.”

And we hear from multiple sources there are more Republicans – at least two – who are in Massie’s camp. Some Johnson critics are already privately floating names behind the scenes of alternatives they’d prefer for speaker, such as House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan or House Majority Whip Tom Emmer. Jordan and Emmer both ran for speaker after the conference ousted Kevin McCarthy. They both lost. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise could also be in the mix.

Arizona GOP Rep. Eli Crane told us he was “undecided” about voting for Johnson and confirmed there’s talk behind the scenes about a potential alternative. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) is leaning “no,” we’re told. Reps. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) and Cory Mills (R-Fla.) have been non-committal. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) is always a wild card.

Trump provided a path on Thursday for Johnson to save his job as speaker in the next Congress. Trump’s roadmap for Johnson appears to set a series of reasonable demands, although achieving Trump’s requests might be difficult to achieve in the context of a potential government shutdown before Christmas.