If there were any doubts about Elon Musk’s political influence in the contemporary Republican Party, they were largely erased last week. After all, the world’s wealthiest individual managed to play a leading role in derailing a bipartisan spending bill negotiated by the GOP’s own elected congressional leaders.

Texas, on Sunday compared tech mogul Elon Musk to a “prime minister,” praising Musk for speaking out against an early version of a stopgap funding bill last week.

Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales spoke about the role Elon Musk is playing as a mediator between President-elect Trump and House Speaker Johnson. "We have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker.