Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is floating Elon Musk to be Speaker of the House after the powerful, billionaire tech businessman helped torpedo a bipartisan agreement on a short-term spending bill.
Why it matters: He's the first GOP lawmaker to explicitly suggest Musk should be Speaker, and his comments come as Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) bid to keep his job is under serious threat.
Musk has already emerged as one of the most powerful voices in politics, and has become one of President-elect Trump's closest confidants.
What he's saying: "Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk," Paul posted on X on Thursday morning. "[T]hink about it . . . nothing's impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka 'uniparty,' lose their ever-lovin' minds)"
Between the lines: The Constitution does not specify that the Speaker of the House has to be a member of the chamber — though they always have been.
non-representative names have been floated over the years during Speaker elections. paul has long been an advocate for slashing government spending, though he is in the wrong chamber to have much say over who will win the Speakers' gavel in January's floor vote. Trump, meanwhile, told Fox News Digital on Thursday morning that Johnson will "easily remain speaker" if he "acts decisively and tough" and eliminates "all of the traps being set by Democrats" in the spending package.
The speaker being the third in line to the presidency but not needing to be an elected representative is such a blatant loophole it feels like it's been left there as a just in case someone wants to do a proper coup someday
I suppose theoretically he'd be skipped, but in reality they'd just waive that because he has Super Citizen status
maybe they'd give him an "temporary" title like Interim Executive Administrator or CEO of America
He'd be skipped over because he's not natural born.
Which would mean second in line goes to the position that's by tradition given to the longest serving member of the Senate majority party, i.e. one of the oldest.
They are elected in the sense that the House representatives vote on confirming a nomination, but there is nothing to stipulate the nominee has to be a representative. That has just been the precedent so far.
The US Speaker of the House is as democratically elected as any Prime Minister.
but there is nothing to stipulate the nominee has to be a representative. That has just been the precedent so far.
The same is true for the British PM and I would guess many other PMs.
I thought so too, but no. It seems that way because the House traditionally chooses an elected rep to serve in the role, but you don't actually need to be a member of the House to be Speaker, the House can choose whoever they want to serve in that role
The Speaker is the only House officer who traditionally has been chosen from the sitting membership of the House. Manual Sec. 26. The Constitution does not limit his selection [the Speaker] from among that class, but the practice has been followed invariably. The Speaker's term of office thus expires at the end of his term of office as a Member, whereas the other House officers continue in office ``until their successors are chosen and qualified.'
They almost definitely won't do this for Musk, but they could
There's a reason the Constitution was written by a couple hundred of the richest, most powerful men, secluded from everyone else, and presented as a feint accompli to a weary population.
I like to ask my most patriotic family members, if they would accept a modern Constitution written by Elon Musk, Mitch McConnell, Nancy pelosi, The Walton family, and George Soros. In secret. If they think such a document could truly protect their liberty. If they think such a document would actually safeguard them?
And if not. Why CAN they trust the 18th century equivalent of Peter Thiel?
To quote Stafford Beer, “the purpose of a system is what it does”!
no chance Elan Munk would take a role requiring any sort of responsibility in group processes/protocols. he is way too aggressively stupid to have the capacity for it and would never even try to learn. nor would he accept some junior bodyman standing there whispering what he needs to do next.
the guy is way too egomaniacal to be in a room that has rules for when to talk and when to shut up. even reading his court transcripts made it obvious how much he resented being temporarily, narrowly subjected to a far more simple version.
He'd have to attend the state of the union too and just sit there for an hour, which is kinda funny to think about
He would absolutely bring a laptop and start playing Diablo.
no chance Elan Munk would take a role requiring any sort of responsibility in group processes/protocols.
this exact same sentiment is true about donald trump but that certainly hasn't stopped him.
This is why Donald Trump has never run for a legislative seat.
There's a big difference between chief executive, and legislator. One at least needs a passing familiarity with parliamentarian rules, motions, objections, that sort of nerd shit. The other needs to be able to make speeches, and act as a figurehead.
That being said, I fully support Elon Musk becoming speaker of the House. Watching him crash&burn will bring me so much joy.
being president of the US or of a company doesn't have group organizing protocols. one just can run their mouth and make pronouncements.
sure, but that's what that parliamentarian loser is there for anyway. it's not like the speaker is always a lawyer who's memorized robert's rules or whatever. but that's regardless of what i intend my broader point to be, which is while it's true he wouldn't like the role, he's also far too stupid to know that.
Deeply unserious party. It’s a real shame Rand Paul’s neighbour didn’t finish the job when he had a chance.
The speaker of the house has to actually do work though, something musk is incapable of.
Real "the rules don't say a dog can't play basketball" energy.
Can't even find a decent culture to be colonized by!
Show
lol i literally just posted about the libertarians going full mask off corrupt "authoritarian" after someone said we should just take the ideology back for the left again
do it do it do it i want people to associate it with a cartoon DOGE with Elon's face booting stomping everyone with less then 50 million net worth
Elon would find the job too boring and would try to appoint the Grok AI chatbot to be speaker for him.
please please it would be so funny