WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump denounced a bipartisan government funding bill Wednesday afternoon, throwing the relief measure into chaos just as leaders of both parties hoped to pass it.
The joint statement from Trump and newly elected Vice President JD Vance sent Republican leaders scrambling to come up with a new plan in the House of Representatives, where Trump wields significant influence. A leading Republican lawmaker later said the bill text, which had been released just a day earlier, had been scrapped.
The bill would have kept the government open until March 14. A shutdown will occur at 12:01 a.m. Saturday without congressional action. There is currently no fallback plan.
“Republicans need to GET SMART and STRONG. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, call their bluff,” Trump and Vance said. “It is [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and [President Joe] Biden holding back aid to our farmers and disaster relief.”
In a shocking twist, Trump also demanded that the legislation include a debt ceiling increase, which neither party had even considered. This is expected to happen by the middle of next year, and Trump made clear he wanted it to happen on Biden’s watch.
“Raising the debt ceiling isn’t great, but we’d rather do it under Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vance said. “If Democrats won’t work on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would in June, during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we need to pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”
Trump’s statement said the solution is a “temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRATIC GIVEAWAYS, combined with a debt ceiling increase. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
Trump later threatened the political future of Republicans who did not heed his warnings about the bill.
“Any Republican who would be foolish enough to do this should and will have a primary,” he said in a message to Truth Social on Wednesday evening.
Asked whether the version of the bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., unveiled Tuesday was dead, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters: “Yes.”
The speaker’s office declined to share a path forward, and top Republicans were in Johnson’s office Wednesday night to find out what’s next. Vance left Johnson’s office Wednesday evening, telling reporters he had a “productive conversation.” He declined to share further details, saying: “We are in the middle of these negotiations.”
As he left the Capitol late Wednesday night, Johnson did not answer a question about the status of the negotiations, but Scalise said, “We had a good, productive meeting.”
The House said it will not hold any more votes on Wednesday while those discussions take place.
‘Practice what he preaches’
Several conservatives — inside and outside Congress — had rejected the legislation after it was released Tuesday evening.
“This is a sandwich,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said Wednesday. “I don’t know how else to say that. We are being forced into this position.”
A Trump transition team official said the newly elected president’s opposition to the CR was part of “practicing what he preaches.”
“There is no way, I mean none, that he would support DOGE and also a 1,500-page CR,” the official said, referring to the government’s Department of Efficiency asking Trump billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to sign to nominate.
Asked why Trump waited until hours after Musk, Ramaswamy and others criticized the bill, the official said: “He left everyone wondering what he wanted to do. All eyes were on him. When he moved, it was over. He is president before he becomes president.”
The fight over government funding is the latest area where Trump has stepped up and tried to steer policy — despite not yet being president. Now that Biden is withdrawing from public view and his term in office is coming to an end, Trump has also tried to shape foreign policy.
However, several Republicans were skeptical of Trump’s call to include the debt ceiling, which won’t be reached until next year, in a financing bill due this weekend.
“I have no problem doing it, I just don’t know why Sen. Schumer would accept it,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., acknowledged Wednesday night. “You don’t have the pressure of an impending bankruptcy to get people. That’s usually how it’s raised, right? Very rarely does it not happen when you are about to take extraordinary measures or set a date.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned that if Republicans abandon the CR deal, they will face a government shutdown.
“Republicans in the House of Representatives have been ordered to shut down the government,” Jeffries said wrote on X. “And hurt the American working class they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that flow from it.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denounced Trump’s derailment of the bill, saying in a statement: “Republicans must stop playing politics with this bipartisan deal or they will harm hardworking Americans and create instability throughout the create country.”
“A deal is a deal,” she added. “Republicans must keep their word.”
Musk weighs in
Within 24 hours of the bill’s publication, Musk blasted it in a flurry of messages to his more than 200 million followers on
“Kill the Bill,” Musk wrote.
He supported and thanked several Republican lawmakers who announced they would vote against the measure, adding, “One of the worst bills ever written.”
Some Republicans in the House of Representatives were encouraged by Musk’s attack on the legislation, which would keep the government open until March 14 and includes provisions to give lawmakers a pay raise, among many other policies negotiated by the two parties.
Trump also weighed in on the proposed pay increase, saying in a message to Truth Social on Wednesday night that “this is not a good time for Congress to ask for raises.”
“I think it’s great,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said of the opposition. “And I think it’s great that they’re paying attention, because I didn’t come here to continue this reckless financing process.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also praised Musk.
“Elon made a pretty serious post there. But you know, that’s the sentiment of the American people,” she said. “This is why we won on November 5. Everyone is tired of spending too much.”
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., chairman of the far-right Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday: “The American people did not send their representatives to Washington to vote on a 1,500-page bill in less than 15 minutes. 24 Hours spending $110 billion adds $110 billion to the deficit, without the ability to offer an amendment to perhaps pay this bill. The process is broken.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said a government shutdown would be “unfortunate” because it “puts a lot of people at risk,” especially those who need the associated disaster assistance.
She also wondered whether Trump was being rolled up by Musk.
“You have to ask Donald Trump – whether Elon Musk makes the decisions,” Shaheen said on Wednesday.
Some Republicans blame Johnson for the mess.
“Johnson really screwed this up. He introduced a very bad bill,” said a Senate GOP leadership aide familiar with discussions.
When asked if the note was dead, the assistant replied: “We’ll see… but it looks very bad.”
What is plan B?
There is little time for members of Congress to come up with an alternative plan. One idea gaining momentum, including among Johnson’s team, several sources told NBC News, is passing a “clean” continuing resolution, or CR — that is, a bill that continues federal funding at current levels – plus disaster relief funding.
Other options could be a clean CR without disaster funding or a CR with disaster funding and an extension of the farm bill. What the final bill will look like remains up in the air, with one member saying that “nothing is set in stone.”
Far-right members who opposed the CR because of its additional policy attachments seemed open to a cleaner version.
“If that’s the case, that’s a big win for conservatism,” Burlison told Fox News. “It’s a big win for Elon Musk and Ramaswamy and their efforts, and I’m excited about that because this city needs some outside pressure if we’re actually going to do things that are necessary to save this republic.” (Vivek Ramaswamy is co-chairman of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency with Musk.)
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, echoed the sentiment. “What we should do is just do a simple CR with a very simple, small amount of disaster supplement for the people in tents in North Carolina. And that’s it,” he said. “That’s what we were talking about.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
