Trump slams government funding bill, undermining efforts to avoid shutdown

President-elect Donald Trump has blown up the carefully negotiated, bipartisan government funding package by demanding that congressional Republicans increase the debt ceiling as part of the measure. He slammed GOP lawmakers for having agreed to a deal in 2023 that suspended the debt limit until January.

Here’s what Trump is talking about:

Incoming Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins said she was surprised by President-elect Donald Trump’s demand to pass a debt ceiling increase as part of year-end negotiations over a government funding package.

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

He otherwise declined to comment on Trump’s unexpected late move to oppose the government funding bill.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she hoped House leaders could figure out a continuing resolution that could quickly pass.

Asked if she was disappointed by the development a week before Christmas, she said, “I’m hoping to get things wrapped up here. We got to wrap quick.”

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 the December 20 funding deadline, as President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have demanded.

Leaving his office on Capitol Hill, less than an hour after releasing a joint statement with President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect Vance said they support a clean spending bill only if it’s tied to a debt limit increase.

The country is on track to hit the US debt limit after it is reinstated in the new year. It has become a politically fraught issue. Trump’s statement indicated he wants the Biden administration to deal with raising the debt limit before he takes office.

Vance did not respond to additional questions on whether he believes Speaker Mike Johnson should be reelected, if he’s spoken directly to Johnson or if he supports a government shutdown.

House members have been advised there will not be a vote tonight on the negotiated continuing resolution after significant GOP opposition materialized this afternoon.

The House is in tomorrow and the lawmakers will return in the morning to try and get funding over the finish line.

Rep. Liz Cheney, Vice Chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, questions Cassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, as she testifies before the committee in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.

The threat of a criminal investigation looming over former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney struck a nerve with some Republicans who are struggling with their party’s appetite to carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s vow for revenge.

It’s even left some lawmakers concerned about whether they could be the next target.

Congressional Republicans have signaled they may pursue investigations targeting special counsel Jack Smith over his two criminal cases against Trump and special counsel David Weiss over his handling of the tax and gun prosecutions of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Lawmakers also have put members of the Biden administration on notice that they’ll be under scrutiny.

But Cheney seems to be a different matter.

“That will be up to the new Justice Department,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, who was subpoenaed by the former January 6 committee, told CNN when asked if Cheney should be criminally investigated. Jordan claimed that Trump is against retribution, adding that the incoming president is “into winning and success for the country.”

Another Judiciary Committee member, Rep. Darrell Issa, outlined that the bar for criminally prosecuting Cheney is different than being politically against her.

“I don’t have knowledge of Liz Cheney’s wrongdoing from a criminal standpoint. I do have her hypocrisy in her political life, and for that I’m disappointed” Issa said. “I don’t want to confuse the two.”

The House Democratic leadership is meeting now to discuss next steps after President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance stated their displeasure about the funding bill.

Aides and members alike are warning that members are not going to be very open to backing a different package after tireless negotiations and the bill’s release last night.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concerns about a multi-billion dollar end-of-the-year funding bill, including a provision that would give them pay raises for the first time since 2009. House Speaker Mike Johnson is attempting to pass the legislation with a slim majority and retain support from his party.

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the first Republican to publicly say he won’t back Johnson for speaker in the new Congress, said he was frustrated with concessions the GOP leader made in negotiating the bill.

Republican Rep. Tim Burchett acknowledged Johnson has been “dealt a tough deck of cards” because conservatives are “always” angry about short-term funding negotiations. “We go through the same charade every time. We always say we’re going to bring everybody to the table, and we don’t do it. Or if we do, they bring them to the table, and they just don’t listen,” the Tennessee lawmaker said.

Republican Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania said he thinks not only are the “optics wrong” for giving lawmakers a pay raise, but the “timing is bad.”

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz acknowledged the complexity of having to vote on a massive spending bill with unpopular provisions, saying “if it was an up or down vote on (the cost of living adjustment), I would vote against it.” But, the Florida Democrat noted if he voted against the bill, then communities in his state devastated by hurricanes would not get more disaster aid.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a New Jersey Democrat who is running for governor in her state, said she understands the concerns of members who are worried about supporting their families, but “I do realize that we also have to take into account people across the country who are very frustrated with Congress’s performance.”

Donald Trump and JD Vance attend a remembrance ceremony on the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 terror attack on the World Trade Center at Ground Zero in New York on September 11.

President-elect Donald Trump and Vice-President elect JD Vance slammed the continuing resolution put forward by House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Johnson is scrambling to avoid a government shutdown when the funding deadline runs out after members of his own party retched up criticism of his plan to fund the government. Trump and Vance repeated many of those criticisms in their statement.

“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’s statement read.

The Biden administration is putting the onus on Congress to reach a funding deal that can pass with just days before a possible shutdown could take effect.

“It’s in the Hill’s hands,” a senior White House official told CNN when asked about the possibility that a deal brokered by House Speaker Mike Johnson could collapse in the face of opposition from Republican members and President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle.

Last Friday, the Biden administration made initial contact with government agencies about contingency planning for a potential shutdown, an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official told CNN. Such communication is customary one week before funding is set to lapse, even if an appropriations agreement appears imminent.

Since then, the White House has remained quiet on its outlook for a potential deal, instead opting to “leave it up to Congressional leaders to decide how to accomplish that,” an OMB official said.

Some background: President Joe Biden has, so far, avoided a government shutdown during his term, but the re-entry of Trump — now accompanied by his wingman, Elon Musk — has complicated Republicans’ negotiations. Trump and Musk have expressed opposition to the bipartisan deal that resulted from weeks of negotiations, throwing congressional leadership into a last-minute frenzy to allay concerns — or reach a new deal.

Trump has shown a stronger tolerance for government shutdowns, even over the winter holidays, as a way to exact pressure on Congress. The last and longest government shutdown occurred in December 2018, stemming from a standoff over more than $5 billion in funding to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. It ended 35 days later when Trump reversed his position as the economic effects of the shutdown intensified.

President-elect Donald Trump has been saying in repeated conversations today that the continuing resolution being put forward by Speaker Mike Johnson is “a bad bill,” according to two people familiar.

He said he agrees with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy that it contains too much excessive spending and special interest inclusions, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN.

The president-elect has communicated that much of these decisions should be made once he is in office and not before then, the source added.

Word of Trump’s displeasure with the bill has quickly spread on the hill, with many members of Congress in discussion on how to handle, two sources familiar with the conversations told CNN.

Fox first reported Trump’s displeasure with the bill.

The spending plan, which is known as a continuing resolution, would fund the government through March 14, setting up another spending showdown in the early days of the Trump administration. Republicans will control both the Senate and House come January, but the party will have slim margins in both chambers.

This post was updated with more details on Trump’s feelings about the continuing resolution.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on December 10.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is fighting to rescue his government funding plan amid intensifying criticism from the right — including from Elon Musk, a key ally of Donald Trump — with a possible shutdown two days away.

Johnson and his leadership team were sent scrambling Wednesday afternoon as the GOP’s funding plan began to collapse with the president-elect’s allies like Musk and Donald Trump Jr. piling on criticism which drove a surge of calls to members’ office.

After hours of whipping members throughout the day, GOP leaders learned they did not have the votes for their current plan, which includes $100 billion in disaster aid, $10 billion in economic relief for farmers as well as a slew of other provisions, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

As a result, Johnson and his leadership team are now weighing how to pare back the spending bill, those sources said. But they face another challenge — they can’t risk jeopardizing the Democratic support needed to get it over the finish line.

Multiple Democratic sources said they did not expect to support a bill that simply extends funding at current levels, with the many billions in additional aid that has already been negotiated.

But many conservatives in the House and Senate are fuming at those same policy add-ons — including one to raise member’s pay for the first time since 2009 — and have begun publicly speculating that it could impact Johnson’s vote to stay on as speaker in just over two weeks.

Sen. John Thune, the incoming Senate majority leader, didn’t take issue with the pay increases congressional leaders included in the must-pass spending bill that was unveiled last night.

Thune said that the lack of cost-of-living adjustments since 2009 can make it difficult to recruit members to run for the Senate.

Asked if he supports the stop-gap bill that has come under fire from the right, Thune said he was still reviewing it.

“I don’t want a shutdown. We are going through the CR (continuing resolution) and figuring out what all is in it,” Thune said, noting that there would be provisions Republicans won’t like since they had to cut a deal with Democrats in the Senate and White House.

Thune added: “At the end of the day, we got to get some of this stuff wrapped this year so we are not dealing with it all again next year.”

Vice President-elect JD Vance did not say whether he advises Republicans to vote on the continuing resolution to keep the government funded until March as he walked out of his office on Capitol Hill and headed toward the Senate floor.

Vance did not answer when asked about whether he agreed with Elon Musk that members should be voted out in two years if they support the proposed spending bill or if he is going to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson.

After Vance voted, he did not answer when asked again if he would support the continuing resolution.

The Federal Reserve is banking on higher-than-anticipated inflation after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Federal Reserve officials had thought their preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, would be 2.1% by the end of 2025 at September’s monetary policy meeting, according to the median forecast included in the quarterly Summary of Economic Projections.

But at this month’s meeting, officials raised their forecast and are now predicting 2.5% inflation by year’s end next year, according to new projections released Wednesday.

What changed from September to December that would cause officials to foresee higher inflation? Trump won a second term.

Trump’s victory carries significant implications for the trajectory of inflation and the overall economy. For example, many economists have warned that some policies Trump promised to put in place, including broad-based tariffs and mass deportations of illegal migrants, could push prices Americans pay for goods and services up significantly.

Fed officials may have taken that into account when they made new projections on inflation’s path next year, though it’s impossible to say for certain whether that alone drove them to believe inflation would be higher.

In recent months, inflation has heated up, moving further away from the Fed’s target. Many officials have also expressed concerns recently that inflation may prove to be stickier than previously thought to be.

House Republicans acknowledge that Elon Musk, who is using his powerful mantle to pressure GOP lawmakers to vote against the government spending bill, has sway on the conference, but not everyone is bending to the pressure – for now.

As multiple GOP lawmakers field calls after Musk unleashed his millions of followers on their offices, the most important voice in the conversation, President-elect Donald Trump, has stayed silent.

House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said “people put a lot of stock” in what Musk has to say but downplayed the impact it has on his colleagues.

The incoming vice chair of the House GOP caucus, Rep. Lisa McClain, told CNN, “He’s not a member of Congress, but I do think he, you know, he’s a successful business owner, and he’s on the DOGE caucus. So, you know it go. It cuts both ways.”

One moderate GOP Rep. Don Bacon, 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.

But retiring GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko, who is voting against the package said she “absolutely” hopes Musk’s public play will sway more of her colleagues to grow.

Elon Musk at Capitol Hill on the day of a meeting with Senate Republican Leader-elect John Thune, in Washington, DC, on December 5.

Elon Musk is using his X platform to threaten Congressional Republicans who vote for the stop-gap spending bill negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years,” Musk posted on X.

“Please call your elected representatives right away to tell them how you feel! They are trying to get this passed today while no one is paying attention,” Musk continued.

Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina said that any member who supports the Trump-formed Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts — which is led by Musk — should be opposed to this stopgap bill.

“Any Member who claims to support the @DOGE should not support this ‘CR of Inefficiency’ that does not have offsets!!” Norman said in his own post on X. “Don’t get weak in the knees before we even get started!”

In order to pass under suspension, Johnson will need roughly ninety members of his own conference to support it.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Sen. Marco Rubio — President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the top US diplomat’s successor — for a “constructive and substantive conversation” on Wednesday, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said.

It was Blinken’s first time meeting in person with the Florida Republican since his selection. The two previously spoke by phone.

Patel did not go into further details about the meeting, but he did say it was one-on-one. He reiterated the State Department’s commitment “to help support a seamless transition.”

Unless TikTok wins its appeal to the US Supreme Court or is sold, the app could be banned in America on January 19 due to national security concerns because of a law signed in April.

But, President-elect Donald Trump — who wanted to ban TikTok back in 2020 — could be an unlikely savior.

Here’s how Trump might be able to do so:

Incoming Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo wouldn’t comment on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism, but said Wednesday he supports President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department.

Asked by CNN if he has any concerns about Kennedy’s views on vaccines, Crapo — who met with Kennedy on Tuesday and whose committee will have primary jurisdiction over the nomination, responded — “I don’t discuss private conversations.”

Pressed further on Kennedy’s false claims that vaccines could be linked to childhood autism, Crapo again dodged, saying he wouldn’t “respond to quotes that other people have said” until he can verify them.

Crapo, who will lead the panel central to confirming Kennedy, said he supports him for the position and thinks “he’s going to be a very good leader to help us move to developing healthy lifestyles and helping the American people get control over an out-of-control bureaucracy.”

He wouldn’t weigh in on when the panel will schedule a hearing on Kennedy, saying “that depends on all kinds of factors that I don’t know the answer to yet.”