Well, that was quick. Donald Trump has already been eclipsed. His signature bomb-throwing style has now been outdone by the man who seemingly refuses to leave Trump's side, and who is a much bigger bomb-thrower than even Trump himself. Elon Musk is now running the government -- or, at the very least, the Republican Party's part of it. This has relegated Trump to being an afterthought, something that he's not usually very comfortable with. Will this begin to chafe? Will Trump decide to sideline Musk at some point, for the sin of overshadowing him on the political stage? We'll have to see, but we do have one suggestion for Democrats who might wish for this to happen.

It's not original. Here's what Bernie Sanders had to say, after Musk started chucking grenades into the budget deal yesterday (which may well lead to a government shutdown tomorrow night):

Democrats and Republicans spent months negotiating a bipartisan agreement to fund our government. The richest man on Earth, President Elon Musk, doesn't like it. Will Republicans kiss the ring? Billionaires must not be allowed to run our government.

This is brilliant, and echoes what people have already been saying on social media and comments on political articles of late: Musk isn't merely a "co-president" or (as we amusingly read in one article) "a virtual first lady," he has taken the reins and shoved Trump into a supporting role. Which is eventually going to start eating at Trump, who never likes anyone stealing his spotlight. So use the one term that hammers this home in the most taunting and extra-snarky fashion: President Elon Musk.

A quick review is in order, for anyone who has been dealing with real life during the past 24 hours or so (it being the week before the holidays really get going, with few paying much attention to the drama playing out in Washington).

The last time Congress punted the budget football, they only funded the government until tomorrow. The funding expires at midnight, Friday night. This is a rather standard maneuver, since it leverages the fact that all the congresscritters want to flee D.C. to spend the holidays with their families. This pressure forces them to get their act together, and usually works pretty well.

Things were on track up until yesterday. The "continuing resolution" they had hashed out was a compromise between Democratic and Republican priorities, as usual in a divided Congress (Democrats still hold the Senate, until the end of the year). It started out as a "clean C.R." which just punted all the budgetary footballs another three months into the future -- enough time for the incoming Congress to put some sort of budget together with Trump's priorities (which they would have had to do by mid-March).

They then added on a few things, again as usual. The biggest item was disaster relief to cover the costs of the recent hurricanes and other natural disasters. There was also a huge bailout for farmers included as well. The Democrats got full funding to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, as well as a few other things on their wish list. There were other changes as well, some major and some minor, but the dust had settled -- both Democrats and Republicans (enough of them, at any rate) were on board and the bill was scheduled to be passed and put on President Joe Biden's desk before the shutdown actually happened.

Enter Elon Musk, stage right. Musk decided to tank the compromise. He sent out an absolute flood of disparaging messages on his own social media platform, trashing the deal. Not unlike Trump himself, he spread all kinds of lies about what was in the bill. He stated that there was $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine, which wasn't even remotely true. He complained that Congress was giving itself a 40 percent raise, when the actual raise contained in the bill was less than four percent (Musk was off by more than a whole order of magnitude). These were just the biggest lies Musk disseminated -- there were plenty of others as well, none of which were based in reality. Musk denounced them all in the most scathing language possible (calling the deal, among other things: "terrible"... "criminal"... "crazy"... "an insane crime").

Musk had also previously threatened all GOP members of Congress who wind up on his (or Trump's) naughty list. Musk spent over $250 million in the 2024 election, and he threatened to spend whatever it takes to "primary" any Republicans who don't fall in line. Seeing as how the entire campaign budget for most House races is only a few million dollars, this is a very real threat -- for what to Musk is pocket change found in the couch cushions, he could indeed probably take out any House members he feels like in the Republican primaries.

The effect of all of this was to blow up the deal. With House (and Senate) Republicans rushing to fall into line with Elon's demands, the votes simply didn't exist to pass the deal as it stood.

This put Speaker Mike Johnson in a very precarious place. He's basically got three choices now: he could let the government shut down and push the whole thing into January, when Republicans take over both chambers of Congress, he could try to jam through the deal he already agreed to with the Democrats, or he could try to pass a truly "clean" bill which didn't have all the extras (like farm aid or disaster aid) in it. Any of these paths is perilous for Johnson, because the first thing the incoming House will have to do is vote on who is going to be speaker for the next two years. If Johnson does anything that enrages Musk (or, to a lesser degree, Trump) then he will quite likely not have the votes to continue as speaker.

Trump was late to the entire party, it bears mentioning. He let Musk rant and rave for a while before offering up his own message in support of tanking the deal and shutting the government down. And then he threw his own curveball into the mix, as he demanded that any deal include extending (or abolishing) the debt ceiling limit.

Trump seems to now be in agreement with plenty of Democrats that the debt ceiling should just go away for good. Here is what he's saying about it now:

On Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said of the government spending deal: "Can anyone imagine passing it without either terminating, or extending, the Debt Ceiling guillotine coming up in June?"

Trump later told NBC News of the debt limit: "The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge." He said getting rid of the debt ceiling entirely would be "the smartest thing" Congress could do.

As I am writing this, the news just broke that Johnson has cobbled together a deal for a mostly-clean C.R., with the farm and disaster aid added in (but without most of the other things that had been negotiated). It will also extend the debt ceiling limit for a whopping two years, which would mean the incoming Congress wouldn't have to vote to do so at all. So we'll see where it all goes from here.

No matter how the impasse is resolved, however, it has made one thing clear. Trump is now second banana in his own circus. He is not driving the MAGA bus anymore -- Musk is. And sooner or later, this is going to enrage Trump, no matter how much he craves the approval of the richest man in the world.

Democrats are already taunting Trump, and they need to keep the pressure up. Representative Zoe Lofgren tweeted out an image of Musk pulling the puppet strings of a Trump doll, which I have to say is both pretty funny and also will likely be pretty effective in getting under Trump's skin. Remember him exploding on the debate stage when Hillary Clinton accused him of being Putin's puppet?

All other Democrats should jump on board this messaging train. Trump should now be referred to (at most) as the incoming vice president. He should be ridiculed for allowing himself to be shoved aside while Musk takes the spotlight. The one thing Trump hates more than anything else is to be seen as being weak -- and that's precisely what this does to him. Any Democrat speaking to the press from this point on should point this out, while laughing. "Oh, you mean President Elon Musk? Because as far as I can see, he's the one pulling Trump's strings, not the other way around."

Who knows? Maybe it'll work so well Trump will get so enraged he'll send Musk packing. It's certainly worth a try.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant