Republican officials are floating Elon Musk as a candidate for Speaker of the House.
Senator Rand Paul threw his support behind Musk for the role in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, this week. in a Thursday post to Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk” he wrote.
Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene also said she was “open to supporting” Musk and to have him “reigning in Congress to enact real government efficiency.”
This support President-elect Donald Trump has cast doubts on current House Speaker Mike Johnson, for the funding bill Johnson backed which Trump called “ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive.”
The Constitution does not specify the House Speaker must be a member of the House of Representatives, or any elected official but so far has never been a non-Congress member.
Musk currently sits as the richest person in the world, with a $438 billion net worth according to Forbes estimates and donated $239 million toward supporting Trump’s election run, making him possibly Trump’s most prolific backer.
The two have been in close quarters since Election Day, with Musk describing himself as Trump’s “first buddy”.
He has also already been assigned an official role is as the co-chair of the newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” commission aimed at reigning in federal spending and regulations.
Musk’s fortune stems mostly from his stakes in the automaker Tesla, aerospace company SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI.