Donald Trump is embroiled in a power struggle with Elon Musk over the Republican-led spending deal. Musk first intervened with a tweet on Wednesday, saying, "This bill should not pass," and it wasn't until late that afternoon that Trump weighed in with a joint statement with JD Vance urging Republicans to reject the sprawling 1,547-page spending package. Democrats, angry that the deal was doomed, took every opportunity to take jabs at Trump, suggesting he'd been usurped by "President Elon Musk" and claiming the president-elect had gone AWOL while the Tesla boss was creating havoc. As the GOP leadership in the House picks over the debris with a government shutdown looming, a desperate briefing war broke out to help Trump save face. Two theories were put forward to explain the chain of events, with the biggest loser appearing to be House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has to revive a fatally damaged deal with Trump's insistence on a higher debt ceiling at odds with Democrat demands and the clock ticking towards a government shutdown for the holidays.

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