Faced with the government shutdown, Trump and Republican allies sink the budget bill | Donald Trump news

With just days to go until funds run out, President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have pressed US Republicans to abandon a short-term spending bill designed to avert a government shutdown.

The US Congress faces a deadline on Friday to pass a budget for fiscal year 2025 or else face the shutdown of non-essential government functions.

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

Pressure began to mount earlier in the day as Trump advisers began raising objections to the stopgap bill, which would temporarily allow government agencies to continue operating at current funding levels.

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

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

“The bill could have easily been less than 20 pages. Instead, there are dozens of unrelated policy items crammed into the 1,547 pages of this bill,” he said. he wrote in social networks.

“Almost everyone agrees that 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 non-government Department of Government Efficiency, also chimed in throughout the day with posts on “kill the account“.

“This is crazy! This is NOT democracy!” moss he 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 firestorm culminated in the intervention of Trump himself, issuing a joint statement with its vice president, JD Vance.

Together, they condemned what they called “democratic giveaways” in the current interim measure.

“Republicans have to be 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 HAPPEN IF THERE WAS A REAL PRESIDENT. WE WILL DO IT IN 32 DAYS!”

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

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

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

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

“Raising the debt ceiling isn’t great, but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If the Democrats don’t cooperate now on the debt ceiling, what makes you think they would in June during our administration? Trump and Vance are to write

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

Johnson’s predecessor, former President 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 that Johnson could face a similar fate as a new Congress convenes in the new year.

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

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

He also noted that the temporary funding would allow Republicans to fully debate the federal budget next year, when both chambers of Congress fall under party control. The current stopgap measure would have provided federal funding through March 14.

“That was the conservative play call,” Johnson he said Newsmax. “Normally we don’t like what’s called a continuing resolution, or CR, but in this case, it makes sense, because if we push it (the budget) through the first quarter of next year, then we’re going to have a Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald J Trump returns to the White House”.

“We will be able to have a greater say in funding decisions by 2025.”

Democrats have already criticized the discord in the Republican Party as a harbinger of disruptions to come under a second Trump administration.

Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida pointed to Musk’s campaign to “kill the bill” as an example of big money influencing the incoming Trump administration.

“He’s been given the leverage to make a damning publication that puts a spending bill in limbo because House Republicans are afraid of him,” Frost. he wrote. “No greater example of oligarchy. Where the ultra-rich run the show.”

Other Democrats accused Trump of failing to address the needs of the voters 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,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries published on social media in reference to Trump’s statements.

“You break the bipartisan deal, you own the consequences.”

Without continued funding, government services will shut down on Saturday at 12:01 AM ET (05:01 GMT).