About

President Musk was a nickname that gained traction in American political discourse in December 2024, after billionaire and Trump advisor Elon Musk reportedly exerted his influence to shut down a budget bill agreed upon by Republicans and Democrats in Congress to keep the federal government running. House Democrats and several internet users criticized Musk's influence over Donald Trump and his followers, using the phrase "President Musk" to criticize the power they believe he exerts over the Republican party.

Origin

Republican and Democratic representatives planned to vote on a budget bill to prevent a government shutdown before December 21st, 2024. Prior negotiations indicated that the two parties were on track to pass a funding bill on December 19th, 2024. However, several Republican politicians defected from their agreed votes after supposedly being pressured by Elon Musk, who threatened to oust them from their seats in the next local elections.

On December 18th, 2024, Musk quoted^[1] a post criticizing the bill made by Vivek Ramaswamy, and subsequently^[2] suggested that "Any member of the House or Senate" who votes for the spending bill be voted out in the next local elections.

One of the earliest notable posts using the phrase "President Musk" in the aftermath of the bill failing to pass was a December 18th, 2024 post by Bernie Sanders,^[3] who wrote, "Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk?" The post gathered over 115,000 likes in two days.

Spread

Several House Democrats began echoing the phrase "President Musk" after the spending bill failed to pass, as seen in a CNN clip posted by @EricLDaugh^[4] where Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger refers to Elon Musk as "president" and Donald Trump as "vice president." The post gathered over 8,000 likes in two days.

JUST IN: Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger refers to Elon Musk as "president" and Donald Trump as "vice president" after today's spending bill defeat.

"President Musk this morning made it clear – with all his vast government experience, which is basically, he became rich on the federal… pic.twitter.com/KONkaoTXi0

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 19, 2024

Also on December 18th, X^[5] user @sweetser_kyle posted an AI-generated image of Elon Musk puppeteering Trump, gathering over 18,000 likes in two days.

Some internet users speculated that calling Elon Musk "President Musk" might irk Donald Trump enough to oust him from his team of advisors, as seen in a December 19th, 2024 tweet by @SenerisYt^[6] that read, "If Trump has to hear the phrase "President Musk and Vice President Trump" every day for the next month, he might crash out and fire Elon before the inauguration lol"

Also on December 19th, several Reddit users shared news articles about Musk tweeting out against the spending bill upwards of 50 times before the Republican party acquiesced to his request. One such post to /r/politics^[7] by /u/T_Shurt gathered over 20,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References