Who is president? By Al Sikes

This is of course now old news (Tweets have a short life). Republicans and Democrats in the United States House of Representatives concluded negotiations on a massive appropriation bill to keep the government operational until March of next year.

But recall before going further: “to retain respect for sausages and laws avoid watching them in the making”. So please do not take this short take as respect for what is called a Congressional Resolution; shorthand: CR. But here we are. The law says to the Congress RESOLVE or shutdown. So the Committee to make Sausage resolved, Republican and Democrat alike.

Within a very short time Elon Musk, America’s richest man and buddy of the President-Elect, put his thumb down. It is said he posted his disapproval on his web site 70 times. Ten hours later so did Donald Trump. Not a good look.

But then when you assemble a bunch of titanic egos do not expect them to ask permission. Presidents since George Washington have used allies to quietly seed the news media with rumors of this or that. It is an honorable way to gain some sense of both insider and public reaction before emerging from the carefully protected trenches and announcing a decision.

Musk’s trench is his business, X, which used to be Twitter. He uses it as a bullhorn. He has impulses and he posts them. In the case of the CR he put his thumb down on the work of the Congressional committee at 4:15 am Wednesday.

Here is a take from the Wall Street Journal: “Over the course of Wednesday, Musk pressed for Congress to kill the bill. He encouraged his more than 200 million followers on X, the social-media platform that he owns, to call their representatives to vote against it, and he warned that Republicans who voted for it should lose their congressional seats in two years. He also said Congress shouldn’t pass any more legislation until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, which would ensure a partial government shutdown until Jan. 20.”

The obvious question is who is leading who? It is said that Musk gave the various Trump campaign subsidiaries over $200 million. And in the aftermath of the election, Musk became a constant presence with the President. Perhaps he should formally join the Trump family. Changing one’s name is not an expensive affair. Dutifully, I apologize for the snark.

What I don’t apologize for is my concern about the world’s richest man placing himself in a position of at least appearing to be not the President’s whisperer but the President’s voice. It is not only on the atmospherics a bad thing, it portends a clash of egos that cannot do other than undermine the Presidency. Regain control Mr. President-Elect.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.