Crisis de cierre gubernamental en EE.UU.: la influencia de Musk y los desafíos de Trump en su agenda en juego.

Los nervios a flor de piel, las traiciones a la espalda, los habituales representantes en busca de un minuto de fama, los reporteros corriendo por los angostos pasillos, los compromisos de última hora y un desenlace más o menos satisfactorio… Casi nada de lo que ocurrió en el Capitolio el viernes, un día frenético que culminó con la aprobación de una medida de gasto temporal para evitar el cierre del gobierno, resultó sorprendente para los veteranos espectadores del gran teatro de Washington. Sin embargo, las negociaciones entre ambos partidos para evitar que se cortara el grifo de los fondos a la medianoche ―lo cual habría dejado a unos 875,000 trabajadores federales sin su paga navideña― proporcionaron pistas valiosas sobre las dificultades que enfrentará Donald Trump y su administración de millonarios para llevar adelante su agenda con premura, en un Congreso que los republicanos controlan solo por un estrecho margen.

It also served as a dress rehearsal for the enormous political influence that Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, is likely to have for at least the next four years, provided he retains the position of Trump’s First Buddy. Using nothing more than his expensive toy, the social network X, which he bought in 2022 for $44 billion, the tech tycoon was able to knock down a bipartisan agreement that had been negotiated for months. He did so with online posts, about 150 of them, and threats like this one: “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”

Not only did he cause a legislative nightmare before Christmas and ruin the quiet week that Democrats and Republicans had been counting on, expecting to go home on Thursday as usual; Musk also inaugurated an era in the not-so-new relationship between oligarchy and political power in a country where wealth is usually virtuous in principle. With evident haste to begin governing ― the cliché would say from the shadows, if it were not for the fact that he does everything in full view of his more than 200 million followers ― Musk pushed the third authority in the country, House Speaker Mike Johnson, to the edge of the abyss and managed to make even Trump dance to his tune.