Billionaire Elon Musk wears many hats as the leader of companies like Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink and X. Could the title of Speaker of the House get added on top of his Department of Government Efficiency role soon?

What Happened: The influence Musk has on President-elect Donald Trump and members of Congress may have been on full display Wednesday with his criticism of a spending bill playing a role in House Republicans rejecting the bill.

The spending bill would have extended federal funding until March and averted a government shutdown. Without the passing of a new spending bill, the government faces a deadline of Saturday, Dec. 21 at 12:01 a.m. ET to avoid a government shutdown, which could impact travel during the Christmas week.

Members of Congress and Musk are now questioning the leadership of current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), who took on the role in a long process back in October that saw multiple voting rounds to replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) floated the idea of selecting Musk to be the next Speaker of the House, a vote that will take place for the new Congress in January.

"The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress … Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk … think about it … nothing's impossible," Paul tweeted.

Paul added there would be "joy" seeing the "collective establishment," which he called the "uniparty," "lose their ever-lovin' minds."

Musk is currently eligible to be the Speaker of the House, with the requirement being that it is a U.S. citizen. The billionaire is not eligible to run for president of the U.S. as he does not meet the natural-born citizen requirement, having been born in South Africa.

The U.S. Constitution laid out plans for a Speaker of the House under Article 1, Section 2.

What the Constitution didn't lay out were any requirements for the position. Unlike the roles of a senator and the U.S. President which have age requirements and other rules to follow, a Speaker of the House can be anyone.

Some historians argue that the founding fathers assumed the House would select a member from within and didn't need to spell out the exact details.

A look at history shows that every Speaker of the House has been an elected official and member of the House of Representatives. Every Speaker of the House has also belonged to the majority party, which is not a requirement.

Members of Congress and the Speaker are also allowed to own stocks, which would mean Musk would be able to keep his stake in Tesla if he was elected to the role.

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Trump received at least one vote during the January 2023 Speaker of the House vote, which faced 15 ballot rounds to secure McCarthy's role.

Johnson was the favorite to continue his Speaker of the House role in January with odds of over 90% on prediction market site Polymarket until Wednesday. The criticism of the spending bill has put Johnson's re-election chances in jeopardy.

Here are the current odds on Polymarket for the next Speaker of the House:

• Mike Johnson: 66%
• Steve Scalise (R-La.): 12%
• Jim Jordan (R-Ohio): 7%
• Tom Emmer (R-Minn.): 5%
• Byron Donalds (R-Fla.): 2%
• Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.): 2%
• Elon Musk: 2%

The list above are the current favorites with others listed at odds of 1%. Musk was at odds of 1% prior to Thursday. The list above is also all members of the House of Representatives outside of Musk and all members of the Republican party outside of Jeffries.

On prediction market Kalshi, Johnson also saw his odds fall and they sit at 59%. Jordan is the second favorite at 19% followed by Scalise at 11% and Emmer at 9%. Musk is also listed at 2% on Kalshi.

Trump recently told Fox News that Johnson will "easily remain speaker" if he is tough on the spending bill.

"Anybody that supports a bill that doesn't take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible," Trump told Fox News.

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