Musk and Trump put House GOP in a bind

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

50% : Privately, Trump pushed Johnson to quickly raise the debt ceiling since the election, hoping to clear the decks for his post-inauguration sprint.
48% : And remember, past debt ceiling negotiations have gone along with long-term spending cap deals, where Democrats have keenly protected their own interests in non-defense discretionary spending.
46% : The most prominent theory of what happened yesterday is this, according to multiple Hill Republicans: Musk, as the anointed co-chair of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency panel, got out over his spending-slashing skis and backed Trump into a corner.
41% : And we're also told Republicans passed off the details of the deal to those close with Trump.
32% : Johnson can't just freely give Trump what he wants -- a debt ceiling increase -- without Democratic buy-in, given they control both the Senate and White House.
29% : There was little evidence Trump cared much about the CR before that, and POLITICO has learned that Trump's team was aware of the contours of the deal and did not object.
28% : Johnson's not wrong about that: Even before Trump made his debt ceiling demand, some conservatives were so peeved with the CR that they were threatening to oppose Johnson's bid for speaker early next year.
28% : Under this theory, Trump got caught flat-footed as Musk's opposition spread like wildfire, igniting the right -- and thus had to chime in with his own concerns.
28% : Would Trump (and Musk) be okay with Johnson doing that for Democrats?
23% : Are those members really going to get behind a snap debt ceiling hike just because Trump said jump?
23% : Now, Trump and his brain trust feel frustrated that Johnson gave away concessions to Democrats without giving Trump the debt ceiling hike he wanted.
21% : The problem for Johnson is that Musk and his Twitter cronies are threatening to essentially primary Republicans who back a typical end-of-year spending bill before Trump is even in office.
16% : But then Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance dumped gasoline on the fire.

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