Elon Musk Has Thoughts About Trump Backing Mike Johnson for Speaker

Amethyst Martinez
·2-min read
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 05: U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to reporters after a meeting with members of Congress and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Co-Chairs of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on December 05, 2024 in Washington, DC. Musk and Ramaswamy are meeting with members of the U.S. Congress today about DOGE, a planned presidential advisory commission with the goal of cutting government spending and increasing efficiency in the federal workforce. ( (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

Elon Musk flip-flopped on standing behind Donald Trump Monday, minutes after the president-elect threw his support behind embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Musk first tweeted his agreement with Trump in giving his support to Johnson, who will lose his gavel if he loses more than two of his members in a vote on Friday for the speakership.

But minutes later the billionaire Tesla CEO echoed Rep. Thomas Massie’s concerns over letting Johnson keep his crucial role as head of the chamber.

“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” Massie wrote. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.”

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Musk replied simply: “You might be right, but let’s see how it goes.”

The sentiment was an apparent about-face for Musk, who less than an hour before tweeted that the speaker had his “full support.” It underlines how mercurial Musk can be, making his presence at Trump’s side an extra dimension of chaos for Johnson and other Republican leaders in Congress.

Massie went on to say that he would not be voting for Johnson, and hoped that other Republicans would join him.

With a small majority, Johnson cannot lose more than two GOP votes unless Democrats step in. The Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has suggested that he will leave the civil war inside the Republicans to the party, meaning he is unlikely to give a lifeline to Johnson.

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The MAGA world has erupted into a public series of running battles in recent days, with Musk at the center of many of the skirmishes.

Less than two weeks ago, a government shutdown loomed after Musk disagreed with Johnson’s hard-fought bipartisan spending bill. Trump later agreed with the SpaceX founder, sealing the bill’s fate—though Congress ultimately patched together a stopgap measure to stave off the shutdown for a few months.

Democrats, however, have reveled at the battles within the opposing party, even jokingly referring to Musk as the actual incoming president.

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