Democrats, media allies push talking point that Elon Musk is truly incoming president instead of Trump

Liberal media outlets and Democratic lawmakers have grasped onto a new talking point as the incoming administration gets ready to enter the White House — Elon Musk is a "shadow" president, taking the reins from President-elect Donald Trump.

House GOP leaders are working toward a backup plan after an initial bipartisan deal to avoid a partial government shutdown was killed by conservative opposition led by Musk, Trump's pick to co-chair his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), alongside Vivek Ramaswamy.

"Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed! VOX POPULI. VOX DEI," Musk posted on X Wednesday.

A plethora of prominent figures across the media then insinuated that Musk was pulling the strings inside Trump's team.

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"Elon Musk, the guy who really runs things. He's not just Trump's co-president. I think that's way too low a title," MSNBC's Chris Hayes said during his Wednesday monologue. "He's the head dude in charge and House Republicans certainly know who they are taking their marching orders from."

Jen Psaki expressed a similar sentiment on the network, suggesting that Musk may begin to "outshine" Trump and inadvertently draw the scorn of the president-elect.

"Elon Musk is around Trump all the time. He was in that picture that you referenced, that was at the Army-Navy game, creepily kind of right over his shoulder. He seems to be living at Mar-a-Lago. I don't know how Trump feels about that. Maybe he's enjoying it currently. Will he still? And he's also getting credit for having power over Congress, over Trump. How does that sit with Trump? We know from history, typically doesn't sit well," she said.

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The ladies of ABC’s "The View" also waded into the conspiracy, with Whoopi Goldberg asking Thursday who really is in charge of Trump’s circle. After Joy Behar suggested that Musk and Vice President-elect JD Vance may be colluding against Trump, Goldberg took it a step further and joked the pair may be conspiring to kill the incoming president. 

"Hey, you know who; stay away from the stairways," she said as the crowd erupted in laughter. 

CNN commentator David Axelrod highlighted competing visions between Musk and Trump about the spending bill during a Wednesday appearance on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360."

"What was confusing to me is Musk sends out one of his tweets, and he says no one should do anything until January 20th, when Trump gets there; Trump sends out a tweet saying they ought to pass a clean CR with a debt ceiling — raising the debt ceiling because … he doesn't want to be blamed for it," he said. "So, they seem to be saying different things, and eventually they're going to have to get together and decide who the president is."

"Morning Joe" co-anchor Willie Geist took the narrative further on Thursday, claiming that current and former Republicans are now referring to the incoming commander-in-chief as "Vice President Trump."

"That is not going to sit well," Geist said.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump-Vance Transition spokeswoman and incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt threw cold water on the media talking point.

"As soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view. President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop," she said. 

A swathe of Democrats also indicated that they believe Musk is directing the Republican agenda.

"Apparently America elected Elon Musk President. Trump is just his errand boy," Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., wrote on Musk's X.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., posted on Wednesday that it is "clear who's in charge" of the party—and it's not Trump.

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"Shadow President Elon Musk spent all day railing against Republicans' CR, succeeded in killing the bill, and then Trump decided to follow his lead," she wrote on X.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., echoed the claim later that night, telling MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell that it was not Trump who asked for the spending bill to be killed, but rather "President" Elon Musk.

Trump adamantly opposed the bill on Wednesday through a series of posts on Truth Social.

"Sounds like the ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive Continuing Resolution, PLUS, is dying fast, but can anyone imagine passing it without either terminating or extending, the Debt Ceiling guillotine coming up in June?" the incoming president asked. "Unless the Democrats terminate or substantially extend [the] Debt Ceiling now, I will fight 'till the end. This is a nasty TRAP set in place by the Radical Left Democrats!"

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Fox News' Greg Wehner, Tyler Olson, Chad Pergram and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.