This story has been updated.

Here we go again: the government is on the precipice of shutting down. Like the last shutdown six years ago — the longest in history — incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s mercurial temperament and social media use played a key role in derailing a critical debt-ceiling bill at the 11th hour.

This time, however, Trump was egged on by the newly emboldened Elon Musk, incoming chairman of the new Department of Government Efficiency. Employing over 100 posts on X (formerly Twitter), Musk almost singlehandedly swayed GOP sentiment against the bipartisan bill. Efforts to revive parts of it have since failed. Congresspeople, including Rep. Summer Lee (Pa.-12), remain stuck in Washington, D.C. while negotiations continue.

“Elon Musk blew up the bipartisan-negotiated C.R. [continuing resolution] that we already had,” Lee tells Pittsburgh City Paper by phone from the Capitol. While options for a new bill have been floated, Lee says, “I think that what the Republicans are realizing is that they’re not going to be able to pass a continuum resolution without Democratic votes.”

The impasse points to Musk’s swift rise to the top of the MAGA pecking order — for now, at least.

Musk “also tweeted out in those [posts] consistent disinformation about what was in this C.R., about the process of passing a budget of governing,” Lee says. “That’s information that the American population are consuming at a time where, quite frankly, you know, they are vulnerable, because these are processes that have for so long been shrouded in mystery and backroom deals.”

Lee says the move cements Musk’s status as an “oligarch.” The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s net worth has skyrocketed to over $400 billion since Trump’s reelection on Nov. 5.

Meanwhile, Pittsburghers are likely to feel the pinch in various ways. A government shutdown effectively freezes federal payroll and stymies agencies from the TSA to Veterans Affairs. Beyond parks and facilities in D.C., Pittsburghers collecting federal paychecks would see pay frozen mere days before the holidays.

“When I think hyper-local, I think about the 8,000 to 10,000 federal employees that could go without a paycheck or be furloughed. I think about the thousands of people who rely on assistance such as WIC,” Lee tells City Paper. “That’s 2,000 infants and children that would go without that critical program.”

TSA and air traffic controllers, including those at the Pittsburgh International Airport, would also potentially be asked to work without pay, leading to long waits for holiday travelers. Lee, echoing White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, said the shutdown could also hamper a smooth transition between current President Joe Biden and Trump’s incoming administration.

“Elon Musk inferring quite dangerously that we should pass nothing until Jan. 20 shows his lack of understanding of how the government actually works,” Lee says. “We can do no other business until we pass a budget.”

Updated Dec. 20 7:00 p.m.: With 34 Republican defections, the House managed to pass the first continuing resolution Friday evening.

“Democrats showed the country that we remain the party willing to unite to do our duty,” U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio said in a press release. “That is very different from House Republicans who, while in the majority party, keep falling into disarray and taking us to the brink.”

Deluzio concurred with Lee in a post on X that the averted shutdown would have “hurt a lot of people in Western PA.”