Trump brings Congress to a halt with new demands on spending as shutdown looms

By Sarah Ferris, Annie Grayer, Alayna Treene, Kristen Holmes and Lauren Fox, CNN

(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump delivered a missive to Capitol Hill on Wednesday that significantly ratcheted up the chances of a government shutdown just before Christmas, while sending the clearest signal yet that he is seeking a dramatic showdown with Democrats over spending.

Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance on Wednesday sharply criticized a deal to fund the federal government until March 14 that was negotiated by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, undermining support for the plan across Capitol Hill just days away from a shutdown deadline.

Trump and Vance slammed the bill for including what they see as Democratic priorities but also injected the politically fraught issue of the US debt limit, which the country is on track to hit after it is reinstated in the new year.

“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025,” Trump and Vance said in a statement. “The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”

Within hours, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters the funding plan had been officially scrapped.

Scalise, who said he had not spoken directly with Trump as of Wednesday night, said a new agreement had not been reached and that Republicans were discussing how to tie a debt limit increase to government funding, in response to the president-elect’s last-minute demand.

Leaving the Capitol later Wednesday, the Louisiana Republican said they are “going to continue to work through the night, through the morning to get an agreement we can bring to the floor,” adding, “We’re not there yet.”

“We’re going to get it resolved – hopefully tomorrow, we’ve got to see,” Scalise said.

Throughout the day Wednesday, Trump had privately trashed the spending deal in conversations, multiple sources told CNN. That opposition set off a scramble among GOP lawmakers, and Republicans on Capitol Hill described Trump’s opposition as the final death knell for Johnson’s spending deal. It also raised the question of whether the Louisiana Republican would have Trump’s support for his own speaker race just over two weeks away.

Johnson unveiled the text for his government funding plan Tuesday night, but it met withering criticism from the right flank of his party for being too supportive of Democratic priorities. Democrats would likely be needed to pass the bill in both chambers of Congress.

Then came Trump and Vance’s eleventh-hour statement, which called on Republicans to take a hardline approach on spending. They called for Republicans to attach demands to the debt limit debate to the bill to keep the government open.

“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 wrote in the statement.

“Let’s have this debate now,” they wrote on the debt limit. “And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”

The last-minute grenade into the spending fight — after a bipartisan deal had already been reached — dramatically increases the risks of a shutdown on Capitol Hill. Top Democrats quickly signaled that they would be unwilling to go along with Trump’s new calls for a “streamlined” spending deal that rips out billions of dollars in policies that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had already negotiated with Johnson.

“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support,” Jeffries wrote in a post on X, sending a clear sign that his party would not help bail out the votes for a GOP bill that ignores his agreement with Johnson. “You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”

House Democrats plan to caucus in the morning, according to a senior Democratic aide. Democrats in the Senate, which also must pass a bill before funding runs out on Saturday, committed Wednesday evening to sticking with the deal they struck, saying after huddling on the chamber floor that there was agreement and it’s time to vote.

Leaving his office on Capitol Hill, less than an hour after releasing the joint statement with Trump, Vance said they support a clean continuing resolution – or CR – only if it’s tied to a debt limit increase.

“What the president believes is that we should support a clean CR so long as it contains a debt limit increase,” Vance said in response to a question from CNN. “That’s the position of the president and that’s what we’re going to try to push for.”

Later Wednesday night, the vice president-elect told reporters as he was leaving Johnson’s office that they had “a productive conversation” but said Republicans are still “in the middle” of negotiations.

“But I think we will be able to solve some problems here, and we will keep working on it,” Vance said.

A preview of fights to come

The avalanche Trump prompted on Wednesday afternoon by coming out against Johnson’s spending plan at the last minute suggests that Trump’s second term could be riddled with the same chaotic governing style he exhibited in his first, even though Republicans will control both chambers of Congress next year.

Johnson and his leadership team now have no obvious path forward, according to multiple GOP sources. It’s a remarkable reversal from just hours earlier, when members of Johnson’s leadership team were feeling mostly positive about how the bill would land among the GOP, many of those same sources said.

But that support quickly cratered by Wednesday afternoon, as key Trump ally Elon Musk suggested that Republicans who supported the deal should be primaried. One House GOP source described the plan as “collapsing” in the wake of Musk’s posts, driving a surge of calls to members’ offices.

“All these things that we didn’t even know were on the table, that are suddenly in this — and then we get potentially less than 24 hours to vote on it,” Republican Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas told CNN. “This is everything that’s wrong with Washington and everything we promised we would not support.”

While many of the GOP members sought that disaster and farmer assistance, many conservatives were also livid that Johnson had allowed such a large package to be rushed through at the end of the year.

Once Musk pressured Republicans to vote against the bill, support for the package started to crumble, even as lawmakers seemed to hold their ground publicly.

“We will see the new power of Elon,” said GOP Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who is against the spending bill and hopes Musk’s pressure campaign sways his colleagues.

One moderate GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who supports the package, told CNN that Musk was “premature” for coming out against it so quickly when there are a lot of Republican “wins” tucked in.

“He should have gotten the facts,” Bacon added.

Republican Rep. Robert Aderholt of Alabama, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said it would be “very difficult” to pass a debt limit measure before Friday’s deadline but said if Trump wants it, “I think we should maybe look at it.”

“It’s complicated enough without that,” House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers said of tying the two together.

Republicans in the Senate similarly pushed back on the likelihood of getting a new bill through.

GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota added a dose of skepticism to the move, telling CNN, “I’m open to ideas on it, but I’m not sure how we do that.”

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the incoming chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she was surprised by Trump’s debt ceiling demand, saying, “I don’t know his rational,” and throwing up her hands when asked if making such an add was realistic.

As Collins was walking with reporters, she passed outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who quipped, “Oh, this is the way it’s going to be next year.”

Debt ceiling suspended until January 2

The debt ceiling, which was suspended by the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act in June 2023, will return on January 2. The Treasury Department will then have to use the cash it has on hand, as well as so-called extraordinary measures, to continue paying the nation’s bills on time and in full. Those efforts will probably last for several months, possibly until the summer – giving Congress some time to act to avoid a first-ever default.

The 2023 deal took months to craft and brought the nation uncomfortably close to a default, which would have unleashed global economic chaos and had major consequences on many Americans’ finances.

Established by Congress, the debt ceiling is the maximum amount the federal government can borrow to finance obligations that lawmakers and presidents have already approved. Treasury needs to borrow to pay the bills since the US spends more than it collects in revenue, resulting in a budget deficit.

The nation’s debt currently stands at $36.2 trillion.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer, Ted Barrett, Tami Luhby, Clare Foran and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

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