Trump and Musk send DC in tailspin with spending bill attacks as government shutdown nears: Live updates

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t joining calls from some in his party to replace House Speaker Mike Johnson at the start of the next Congress after the Louisiana Republican tanked a bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown, apparently on orders from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.

Johnson won the gavel last October after a protracted fight following the ouster of former speaker Kevin McCarthy — an event touched off by McCarthy’s decision to allow a vote to fund the government on a bipartisan basis rather than forcing a shutdown until passage of a party-line bill more acceptable to hardline conservatives.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, D.C.

Despite last night having personally intervened to undermine the negotiated continuing resolution to keep the government open, Donald Trump appears to believe that if nothing is agreed by midnight on Friday and the government does shut down, people will blame Joe Biden...

ABC’s Jonathan Karl is the latest journalist to speak with the president-elect today. Here’s what he posted on X, just now:

In a conversation a few minutes ago, @realDonaldTrump told me, "There won't be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with."

He wants the debt ceiling eliminated or extended.

"If we don't get it, then we're going to have a shutdown, but it'll be a Biden shutdown, because shutdowns only inure to the person who's president."

Given the narrative pushed by both Democrats and Republicans that Elon Musk and Trump are the force behind the scrapping of the CR bill, it seems unlikely that any subsequent shutdown would be blamed on anyone but them.

However, these are strange times.

Here’s Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just now:

Democrats have slammed Elon Musk after his opposition to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposed congressional spending bill led Donald Trump and JD Vance to order Republicans not to support it, leaving the federal government hurtling toward another shutdown.

Johnson’s stop-gap continuing resolution (CR) would have bankrolled the government at current funding levels through to mid-March 2025, but the president-elect and his deputy’s intervention now appears to have tanked its chances of passing in its present form before Friday’s deadline, sparking chaos on Capitol Hill.

Joe Sommerlad has the details.

California Democratic Rep Brad Sherman says: “I don't know who is going to win this shutdown, but I know who loses and that's the American people.”

He adds: “We know who caused it. We had a deal. We negotiated a deal. And then Musk decided to change the deal. Do I call him President Musk?”

The American economy grew at a healthy 3.1% annual clip from July through September, propelled by vigorous consumer spending and an uptick in exports, the government said in an upgrade to its previous estimate.

Third-quarter growth in U.S. gross domestic product — the economy’s output of goods and services — accelerated from the April-July rate of 3% and continued to look sturdy despite high interest rates, the Commerce Department said Thursday. GDP growth has now topped 2% in eight of the last nine quarters.

American voters were unimpressed by the steady growth under Democratic President Joe Biden.

Read on...

Firebrand Georgia Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is open to supporting Elon Musk as speaker of the House — a position that does not require the holder to be a member of Congress.

Here’s what she wrote in response to Senator Rand Paul’s earlier tweet:

I’d be open to supporting @elonmusk for Speaker of the House.

DOGE can only truly be accomplished by reigning in Congress to enact real government efficiency.

The establishment needs to be shattered just like it was yesterday.

This could be the way.

Congresswoman Becca Balint of Vermont says Elon Musk wants a tax break in the next administration and that is why the spending deal has been nixed and the debt ceiling is now on the table: “That’s what this is about folks. It’s about a big freaking tax break for billionaires. That’s what it’s about. Don’t be confused about what’s going on.”

The Senate has passed a divisive new defense spending bill that directs $895bn towards the Pentagon for the coming year, despite Democratic objections to a provision buried within it that blocks the transgender children of servicemen and women from receiving health coverage to treat gender dysphoria.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed through the House of Representatives last week and the upper chamber of Congress on Wednesday by 85 votes to 14 and will now make its way to President Joe Biden’s Resolute Desk in the Oval Office to be signed into law.

But while the NDAA includes such positive measures as pay rises for both junior and senior enlisted members and authorizes $33.5bn for new battleships, $17.5bn for military construction projects and $143bn for research, development and weapons testing, its anti-trans clause, reportedly added at the insistence of House Speaker Mike Johnson, caused disquiet.

Joe Sommerlad has the details.