“This bill is a crime”: Musk throws social media fit over stopgap government funding effort

Soon-to-be Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk can add another imaginary title to his resume: social media majority whip. 

The Tesla CEO and owner of X raged all day Wednesday against an omnibus bill meant to avoid a government shutdown. That continuing resolution was negotiated by leaders of the House and Senate and revealed earlier this week. It provides funds to keep the federal government operational through March 14. Without a resolution, the government would run up against a lapse in funding, as a similar resolution passed earlier this year only funded the government through December 20.

GOP hardliners have been railing against the contents of the bill, which includes approximately $100 billion in disaster aid and a pay raise for lawmakers, since it was released. 

Musk was tagged to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, and the pair were given the ill-defined mandate to slash government spending. He posted more than 40 times to his social media app X on Wednesday, calling the omnibus bill a “scam” and “an outrage.” He’s also shared the posts of Republican members of the House who have spoken out against the bill.

“The more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that this spending bill is a crime,” he wrote. “Stop the steal of your tax dollars!”

Musk’s impromptu whipping of votes in opposition to the spending bill reportedly has House Speaker Mike Johnson considering a narrower resolution that would carve out much of the stopgap bill’s appropriations. Politico shared that Johnson is weighing a Plan B resolution. However, abandoning the bill negotiated by congressional leaders runs the risk of heading into the holidays with the federal government shut down for lack of funding.