Trump and Musk send DC in tailspin with spending bill attacks as government shutdown nears: Live updates
The proposed continuing resolution, championed by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, would have kept agencies running at current funding levels through to mid-March 2025
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump and JD Vance appear to have guaranteed a bitter showdown with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill after demanding that the House and Senate effectively force the federal government to shut down, rather than pass a stop-gap funding bill championed by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Johnson’s bipartisan deal would have kept agencies running at current funding levels through to mid-March 2025 but the president-elect and his deputy issued a statement complaining the bill does not address the nation’s statutory debt ceiling, urging the passage of a “streamlined” alternative version “that doesn’t give... the Democrats everything they want.”
Democrats have meanwhile mocked tech billionaire Elon Musk’s undue influence over the incoming administration, with Senator Bernie Sanders ironically praising “President Elon Musk” on X.
While Trump told Fox News Digital Johnson will “easily remain speaker” he added a caveat reiterating his earlier statement. Among the names floated as potential replacements for Johnson is Musk, with Senator Rand Paul noting the role is not limited to members of Congress.
Meanwhile, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been removed from Trump’s sprawling election interference case by Georgia’s Court of Appeals which ruled her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade was a conflict of interest.
Watch: Mike Lee calls for Ramaswamy or Musk to be next speaker
Sen. Chris Murphy says Trump’s plans to undermine democracy have already begun
Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has argued that President-elect Donald Trump’s supposed plan to “cripple” U.S. democracy has already been put into action.
Murphy took to X to lay out his case, saying, “It’s happening right in front of our eyes. It’s accelerated rapidly in the last 24 hours. Not sure why everyone doesn’t see this.”
“Can I take a minute to connect the dots – on how Trump is putting into action a plan to cripple our democracy in a way we may never recover from?” he asked.
Gustaf Kilander reports.
Democratic senator says Trump’s plans to undermine democracy have already begun
‘If you have a family at home, are you really going to stand up to Trump if there’s a chance you could end up in jail?’ Chris Murphy asks
Trump adamant about debt ceiling’s future and resolution of CR during Biden administration
Donald Trump is adamant about his position on the future of the debt ceiling and how the continuing resolution spending deal will be resolved. In his latest interview today — one of several so far — he spoke with Robert Costa at CBS News, here’s what he tweeted shortly after:
President-elect Trump is unwavering in his position on the fiscal and spending standoff on Capitol Hill.
In a phone conversation, he told me, “Number one, the debt ceiling should be thrown out entirely. Number two, a lot of the different things they thought they’d receive [in the recently proposed spending deal] are now going to be thrown out, 100 percent. And we’ll see what happens. We’ll see if we have a closure during the Biden administration. But if it’s going to take place, it’s going to take place during Biden, not during Trump.”
Trump has long been criticial of the debt limit. And several of his allies tell me that he has been urging Republicans to deal with this matter before he takes office next year so that he could focus on key agenda items rather than being mired in debt-ceiling discussions next spring/summer.
GOP lawmakers ‘sounding exasperated’ amid spending bill drama ahead of new Trump admin
Trump backs Johnson amid calls for his ouster over shutdown debacle
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.
Trump backs Johnson amid calls for his ouster over shutdown debacle
President-elect says Speaker should keep his post if he moves legislation to raise the statutory debt ceiling
Which House GOP leaders are meeting in Speaker’s suite over CR?
Trump believes any shutdown will be associated with Biden and pushes debt ceiling action
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:
Amid spending deal row, Democrats blast influence of ‘President Elon Musk’ over Trump
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.
Democrats blast influence of ‘President Elon Musk’ over Trump amid spending deal row
Tesla billionaire derided for undue influence over incoming commander-in-chief after his objections to Mike Johnson’s stop-gap resolution leaves government hurtling towards shutdown
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