Several Republican lawmakers in Congress are calling on billionaire Elon Musk, president-elect Donald Trump’s pick to co-lead a purported commission on government efficiency, to replace current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Support for Johnson has shifted considerably this week as he tried to pass a continuing resolution bill to fund the government into spring. That measure failed when Musk, and eventually Trump, called on Republicans in the House to vote against it, resulting in Johnson scrapping the bill.
Without a new measure to replace it, the federal government is set to shut down this weekend. Many Republicans blame Johnson for the mess, claiming that his negotiating with Democrats — whose votes he needs to pass any spending measure, as some Republicans in the narrowly divided House will vote against any continuing resolution bill — was unacceptable.
Lauding Musk’s actions against the bill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) suggested on the social media site X (which Musk owns) that the billionaire should take over the speakership from Johnson.
The U.S. Constitution stipulates that the House of Representatives “shall choose their speaker and other officers.” But it doesn’t require a person to be a duly-elected member of the House before becoming speaker.
If Republicans move forward with this plan, it will be the first time ever that a speaker of the House was not also a representative within the House.
“The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress,” Paul said, adding that he believes Musk would be a good choice to “disrupt the swamp.”
Far right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) agreed with Paul’s assessment, saying she could “be open to supporting @elonmusk for Speaker of the House.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said that one of the two heads of the soon-to-be-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — Musk or Vivek Ramaswamy — should become speaker of the House.
“I think we need to go outside the box. I think we need to look to a different place,” Lee stated in an interview, adding that GOP lawmakers should “choose one of them — I don’t care which one — to be our speaker.”
Some Democratic lawmakers also joked that Musk should run the House, issuing tongue-in-cheek commentaries on how he seemingly already runs it, as the billionaire recently managed to kill spending bills through dozens of posts on X.
“If Elon Musk is kind of cosplaying co-president here, I don’t know why Trump doesn’t just hand him the Oval Office, or Speaker Johnson should maybe just hand Elon Musk the gavel if they just want that billionaire to run the country,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) told reporters.
There would be a slew of concerns if Musk becomes speaker of the House, including over whether he would divest from his business interests. As an acolyte of Trump’s, Musk likely wouldn’t do so, creating considerable conflicts of interest, as he would be tasked with overseeing the passage of legislation that would affect his businesses.
Musk and Ramaswamy have made it clear that, as heads of DOGE, they intend to consider making cuts to safety net programs, including Social Security. As speaker of the House, Musk could fast-track legislation that would make those cuts.
On social media, Musk frequently peddles conspiracy theories and amplifies antisemitic and transphobic talking points. There’s no question that a Speaker Musk would push anti-trans legislation, as many Republicans relied heavily on fearmongering about trans children to bolster their 2024 campaigns.
Musk would likely make an unpopular choice for speaker of the House. According to a Quinnipiac University poll that was published this week, only 39 percent of voters have a favorable view of Musk, while 44 percent say they have an unfavorable view of the billionaire.
If Musk were appointed to a role like the speakership, his approval ratings would likely plummet even more. Asked in the same poll whether they liked the idea of Musk playing a prominent role in the Trump administration, only 41 percent of voters said they approved of the idea, while 53 percent said they disapproved.
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