Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan to avoid a government shutdown before Friday’s deadline, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially restart negotiate.
Federal funding runs out on Friday, so members of Congress are racing against the clock before leaving Washington for the holidays to cobble together a short-term spending bill and avoid a shutdown. The measure that was defeated Wednesday would have extended funding through March 14.
Trump’s sudden entry into the debate and his new demands sent Congress into a spiral. It left Johnson scrambling around the Capitol late into the night. On Thursday morning, Trump told NBC News that Congress should “eliminate” the so-called debt ceiling — a limit on what the U.S. Treasury can borrow to pay its bills — a proposal that has traditionally drawn more support from Democrats than Republicans.
Related: The American financing plan collapses because Trump makes demands days before the shutdown
In an interview with NBC News, Trump said abolishing the debt ceiling was the “smartest thing.” [Congress] could do – I would fully support that.”
The idea was quickly rejected by Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“Republicans in the Republican Party want the Democrats in the House of Representatives to raise the debt ceiling so that the Republicans in the House of Representatives can reduce the amount of your Social Security check. Hard pass,” Jeffries posted on his Bluesky account on Thursday.
The day before, Trump proposed an emergency measure that would combine a continuation of government funding with a much more controversial provision to raise the country’s debt limit — something his own party consistently rejects.
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and his newly elected vice president, JD Vance, said in a statement. They added: “Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
Democrats denounced the Republican Party’s revolt over the funding bill, which would also have provided about $100.4 billion in disaster aid to states hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.
“This reckless, Republican-driven shutdown can be avoided if Republicans in the House of Representatives simply do what is right for the American people and stick to the bipartisan agreement they themselves negotiated,” Jeffries told reporters at Capitol on Thursday Hill. He called Trump’s proposal to limit debt “premature at best.”
But some Democrats are willing to take up the offer. “I agree with President-elect Trump that Congress must end the debt limit and never govern through hostage taking again,” wrote progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on X.
The massive 1,500-page bill was already on the verge of collapse as far-right conservatives rejected the increased spending. They were urged to do so by Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk, who rejected the plan almost as soon as it was released.
Rank-and-file lawmakers complained about the perks, including their first pay raises in more than a decade — a shock after one of the most unproductive, chaotic sessions in modern times.
Even the addition of much-needed disaster aid, some $100.4 billion in the wake of hurricanes and other natural disasters that ravaged states this year, plus $10 billion in economic aid for farmers, failed to sway the austerity-minded Republican Party to win over. A number of Republicans had been waiting for Trump to signal whether they should vote yes or no.
“This cannot be allowed to pass,” Musk posted on his social media site X in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
One lawmaker said office phone lines were flooded with calls from constituents.
“My phone was ringing off the hook,” said Andy Barr, a Republican representative from Kentucky. “The people who elected us listen to Elon Musk.”
The outcome comes as no surprise to Johnson, who, like other Republican House speakers before him, has failed to convince his majority to agree to the routine needs of federal government operations they would prefer delete.
He met behind closed doors late into the night at the Capitol with Republican lawmakers trying to find a way out of the trouble. Vance accompanied them until almost 10 p.m., his young son – in pajamas – in tow.
“We had a productive conversation,” Vance said as he and his son left the speaker’s office, deflecting repeated questions about the details.
“We are in the middle of these negotiations, but I think we can resolve some issues here.”
It all shows how difficult it will be for Republicans to unite and lead the nation next year, when they take control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House. And it underlines how much Johnson and Republican leaders must depend on Trump’s blessing to get a legislative package across the finish line.
Musk, who heads a government agency Trump says he will create called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” warned: “Every member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be expelled within two years.” voted out! ”
It is not an idle threat coming from Musk, the richest man in the world, who helped finance Trump’s victory and can easily use his America Pac to make or break political careers.
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland, said this is the problem of “an oligarchy – a handful of rich people run everything and everyone is supposed to live in fear of them.”
The bipartisan package that Trump rejected extended existing government programs and services at their current operational levels for a few more months, through March 14, 2025.
The stopgap measure is necessary because Congress has failed to pass its annual appropriations bills to fund all the various agencies in the federal government, from the Pentagon to health care, welfare, transportation and other routine domestic services.
But the inch-thick bill goes beyond routine funding and includes several other measures, including federal funding to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed when it was struck by a freighter. Another provision would transfer the land on which the old RFK Stadium stood from the federal government to the District of Columbia, potentially leading to a new stadium for the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
The bill would also have eliminated a wage freeze provision, which would allow for a maximum adjustment of 3.8%, or $6,600 in 2025, bringing lawmakers’ annual salaries to $180,600, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. Members of Congress last got a raise in 2009.
