15:54 21 December 2024
America on the Brink of Shutdown: Elon Musk and Donald Trump Stir Political Turmoil
If no resolution is reached, at midnight from Friday to Saturday, the U.S. government will run out of funds to operate – triggering the dreaded shutdown. The unfolding chaos on Capitol Hill underscores the growing influence of Elon Musk on American politics.
For months, Republicans and Democrats painstakingly worked to reach a compromise to extend the provisional budget until mid-March 2025. The current resolution expires at midnight from Friday to Saturday (December 20-21). However, the compromise was derailed on Wednesday by a series of angry tweets from Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Trump abruptly demanded, at the eleventh hour, that a two-year suspension of the national debt ceiling be added to the slimmed-down budget proposal.
This last-minute demand faced stiff opposition not only from Democrats but also from fiscally conservative Republicans alarmed by America’s ballooning debt. By Thursday, Trump’s proposal was decisively defeated in the House, with 174 votes in favor and 235 against.
