Facing government shutdown, Trump and Republican allies scuttle budget bill

With only days to spare until funds run out, President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have pressured Republicans in the United States to ditch a short-term spending bill designed to avert a government shutdown.

The United States Congress faces a Friday deadline to pass a budget for the 2025 fiscal year, or else face the shuttering of nonessential government functions.

But on Wednesday, a volley of statements and social media posts from Trump and his incoming administration threw a bipartisan deal into chaos, increasing the likelihood of a shutdown.

Pressure started to mount early in the day when Trump advisers began to raise objections to the stopgap bill, which would temporarily allow government agencies to keep running at current funding levels.

But the 1,547-page document also includes other measures, including a pay increase for members of Congress, $100bn for disaster relief and $10bn in farm aid.

Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a former political rival-turned-Trump-surrogate, blasted the bill on social media for what he described as excessive length.

“The bill could have easily been under 20 pages. Instead, there are dozens of unrelated policy items crammed into the 1,547 pages of this bill,” he wrote on social media.

“Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller [and] more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words,” he added. “This is an early test. The bill should fail.”

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk — whom Trump has tapped to work with Ramaswamy on a proposed, nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency — likewise chimed in throughout the day with posts to “kill the bill”.

“This is insane! This is NOT democracy!” Musk wrote. “How can your elected representatives be asked to pass a spending bill where they had no input and not even enough time to read it!!??”

The social media storm culminated with Trump himself weighing in, issuing a joint statement with his vice presidential pick, JD Vance.

Together, they condemned what they called “Democratic giveaways” in the current stopgap measure.

“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,” they wrote.

“THIS CHAOS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD A REAL PRESIDENT. WE WILL IN 32 DAYS!”

Trump is scheduled to take office for a second term on January 20. The last government shutdown came during his first term in late 2018 and early 2019.

That shutdown was the longest in recent history, lasting nearly 35 days. Government contracts went unpaid, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees were furloughed.

The Congressional Budget Office at the time estimated that the five-week shutdown cost the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) $8bn in the first quarter of 2019, as a result of the slump in economic activity.

But Trump has shown little aversion to political brinkmanship, and his opposition to the current stopgap bill — or “continuing resolution” — is poised to avoid another government shutdown early in his second term.

“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” Trump and Vance wrote.

Trump’s opposition to the bill, however, puts him at odds with another prominent Republican: the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

Johnson’s predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from his leadership position in a historic vote last year after he too struck a deal with Democrats to temporarily fund the federal government.

Critics speculate Johnson could face a similar fate, as a new Congress convenes in the new year.

But in an appearance on the conservative network Newsmax, Johnson defended his decision to put forward the bipartisan stopgap measure.

The speaker argued it was necessary to money set aside immediately for farmers and disaster relief, following a “record hurricane season” in the US.

He also pointed out that the temporary funding would allow Republicans to fully debate the federal budget next year, when both houses of Congress fall under the party’s control. The current stopgap measure would have provided federal funding until March 14.

“This was the conservative play call,” Johnson told Newsmax. “We don’t normally like what’s called a continuing resolution, or CR, but in this case, it makes sense, because if we push it [budgeting] into the first quarter of next year, then we have a Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald J Trump back in the White House.”

“We’ll be able to have more say over the funding decisions for 2025.”

Already, Democrats have slammed the discord in the Republican Party as a herald of the disruptions to come under a second Trump administration.

Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida pointed to Musk’s campaign to “kill the bill” as an example of big-money influence in Trump’s incoming government.

“They’ve given him the influence to make a damn post that throws a spending bill into limbo cause House Republicans are scared of him,” Frost wrote. “No greater example of oligarchy. Where the ultra-wealthy run the show.”

Other Democrats accused Trump of failing to address the needs of the constituents who voted him into office.

“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support,” the leading Democrat in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, posted on social media in reference to Trump’s remarks.

“You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”

Without continuing funding, government services are set to shut down on Saturday, at 12:01am Eastern Time (05:01 GMT).