WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump excoriated a bipartisan government funding bill Wednesday afternoon, throwing the stopgap measure into chaos just as leaders of both parties were hoping to pass it.
The joint statement by Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance gravely jeopardizes the bill’s prospects in the Republican-controlled House, where Trump wields significant influence.
The bill would have kept the government open until March 14. A shutdown will occur at 12:01 a.m. Saturday without action from Congress. There is currently no fallback plan.
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” Trump and Vance said. “It is [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and [President Joe] Biden who are holding up 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 been considering. It’s expected to come up in the middle of next year, and Trump made it clear he wanted it to happen on Biden’s watch.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vance said. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should 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 DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
Later, Trump threatened the political futures of Republicans who don’t heed his warnings about the bill.
“Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried,” he said Wednesday evening in a post to Truth Social.
When asked whether the version of the bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., unveiled on 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 Republican members were in Johnson’s office Wednesday night to figure out what’s next. Vance was also spotted on Capitol Hill after 9 p.m., though it wasn’t immediately clear who he was meeting with.
The House said it will not hold any more votes Wednesday while those discussions take place.
‘Practicing what he preaches’
Various conservatives — inside and outside Congress — had blasted the legislation after it was released Tuesday night.
“This is a s— sandwich,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said Wednesday. “I don’t know how else to say that. We’re being forced into this position.”
A Trump transition team official said the president-elect’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 1500-page CR,” the official said, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency Trump has asked billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to run.
Asked why Trump waited until hours after Musk, Ramaswamy and others had criticized the bill, the official said: “He let everyone wonder what he wanted to do. All eyes were on him. When he moved, it was over. He’s president before becoming president.”
The government funding fight is the latest area where Trump has weighed in and tried to direct policy — despite not yet being president. As Biden’s recedes from public view and his time in office winds down, Trump has already tried to shape foreign policy as well.
Several Republicans were skeptical of Trump’s call to include the debt ceiling, which won’t come up until next year, in a funding bill that must pass by this weekend, however.
“I have no problem with doing it, I just don’t know why Senator Schumer would accept it,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., acknowledged Wednesday evening. “You don’t have the pressure of an impending default to get people. That’s usually how it gets raised, right? Very seldom does it not come when you’re either about to approach extraordinary measures or a date certain.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., warned that if Republicans abandon the CR deal, they’ll own a government shutdown.
“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government,” Jeffries wrote on X. “And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed Trump’s derailing of the bill, saying in a statement, “Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country.”
“A deal is a deal,” she added. “Republicans should keep their word.”
Musk weighs in
Within 24 hours of the bill’s release, Musk slammed it in a torrent of posts to his over 200 million followers on X before he called for a monthlong government shutdown until Jan. 20, when Trump is sworn in.
“Kill the Bill,” Musk wrote.
He boosted and thanked various Republican lawmakers who announced they would vote against the measure, adding: “One of the worst bills ever written.”
Some House Republicans felt 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 policy measures negotiated by the two parties.
Trump also weighed in on the proposed pay raise, saying in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday night that “this is not a good time for Congress to be asking for pay increases.”
“I love it,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said of the opposition. “And I love the fact that they’re paying attention, because I didn’t come up here to continue this reckless funding process.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also praised Musk.
“Elon put out a pretty serious post there. But you know, that’s the sentiment of the American people,” she said. “This is why we won on Nov. 5. Everyone is sick and tired of overspending.”
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chair of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday: “The American people didn’t, don’t send their representatives to Washington to vote on a 1,500-page bill in less than 24 hours that spends $110 billion, adds $110 billion to the deficit, without the opportunity to offer an amendment to perhaps pay for this bill. The process is broken.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said a government shutdown would be “unfortunate” as it “puts a lot of people at risk,” particularly those who need the disaster aid attached to it.
She also questioned whether Trump was getting rolled by Musk.
“You have to ask Donald Trump — if Elon Musk is making the decisions,” Shaheen said Wednesday.
Some Republicans are blaming the mess on Johnson.
“Johnson really f—ed this up. He put out a really bad bill,” said a Senate GOP leadership aide familiar with discussions.
Asked whether the bill was dead, the aide replied: “We’ll see … but looks very bad.”
What’s plan B?
There’s little time for members of Congress to come up with an alternative plan. One idea that is gaining steam, 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 the disaster relief funding.
Other options could include a clean CR without disaster funding or a CR with disaster money 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 the additional policy attachments appeared to be open to a cleaner version.
“If that’s the case, that’s a big win for conservatism,” Burlison said on Fox News. “It’s a big win for Elon Musk and Ramaswamy and their efforts, and I’m excited about that because this town needs some outside pressure if we’re going to actually start doing things that are necessary to save this republic.” (Vivek Ramaswamy is a co-chair, with Musk, of Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency.”)
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, echoed the sentiment. “What we ought to do is just do a simple CR with a very simple, small amount of disaster supplemental for the people in tents in North Carolina. And that’s it,” he said. “That’s what we were talking about doing.”
