What did Donald Trump do today?

He called for a shutdown of the government—or, at least, someone did.

Despite early attempts by Trump's staff to ward him off, mega-billionaire Elon Musk has consolidated his hold over the second Trump administration in recent weeks. Today, Musk put that power to use, tweeting more than 150 times calling for Congressional Republicans to defeat a routine continuing budget resolution that they themselves wrote. That bill would keep the government funded at normal levels through the holidays. He explicitly threatened Republicans that defying him put them at risk of losing their next primary elections.

Trump, meanwhile, had not commented publicly at all on the otherwise mundane budget bill that Musk thrust into the spotlight. That radio silence continued until 5:13 P.M. today, after the political die had been cast, when he belatedly joined Musk's call to defeat the resolution. 

Trump had been posting all day on a variety of subjects, making it unclear whether he knew what Musk was up to. Vice-president-elect J.D. Vance, who has been almost completely eclipsed by Musk in recent months, was also apparently out of the loop on Musk's campaign. Adding to the confusion, Trump appeared to attempt to blame President Biden for the shutdown Musk was saying Trump wanted. 

But the strongest evidence that Musk was acting without Trump's knowledge, and forcing Trump to conform after the fact, came in what Trump said when he caught up: a demand that Congress pass an increase to the debt ceiling so that he doesn't have to worry about it once his term starts. (The continuing resolution Musk is attacking would not exceed that limit.) But raising the debt ceiling is a totally different, and much bigger matter politically—and fighting the Biden administration and Senate Democrats on the smaller matter of the continuing resolution completely undermines any chance of a debt ceiling increase.

Musk is the richest person in the world and a de facto oligarch, who some staffers have accused of trying to "co-President" with Trump. Asked for comment, he shrugged off the consequences of suspending government services and laying off workers over the holidays. 

That much is in keeping with how Trump usually approaches shutdowns. In December 2018 and January 2019, Trump set the record for the longest government shutdown in American history during his first term, during which he became the first president ever to force American military servicemembers to work without pay, and he did the same to other federal employees. That particular shutdown was an unsuccessful attempt to force Democrats to fund his never-constructed border wall. 

Trump also shut down the government in 2017 in an attempt to bolster his weak approval ratings, believing that Americans would blame Democrats for his refusal to sign a budget bill when they controlled neither house of Congress. He also threatened to shut down the government in 2019 in an attempt to avoid being impeached over the Ukraine scandal.

Why does this matter?

• It's bad if nobody really knows who holds the power in a presidential administration.

• Disruptions to government services are a big deal for most Americans even if the richest person on the planet isn't too bothered by them.

• The same thing is true of missing a paycheck, especially at the holidays.