Elon Musk is Donald Trump's wrecking ball

Forty-eight hours of chaos descended on Congress after the world's richest man used his own social media platform to spread misinformation. Not for the last time.

-  Nia-Malika Henderson

The US government has just narrowly avoided a shutdown and the speculation, confusion and concern around tech titan Elon Musk's power in Washington are rampant. So rampant that President-elect Donald Trump's incoming press secretary was forced to clarify.

"As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view," Ms Karoline Leavitt explained about the plan to keep the government funded, known as a continuing resolution. "President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop."

This was not entirely convincing. It was not convincing because Mr Musk, who gave Trump's re-election effort a quarter of a billion dollars, has emerged as an unexpected, unelected and uncontrollable political powerhouse.

He derailed the bipartisan plan to keep the government open and put Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's job in jeopardy by posting to his 200 million followers on X, the social media platform he owns.

"This Bill should not pass," Mr Musk posted at 4.15am on Dec 18.