WASHINGTON — A government shutdown at risk, House Speaker Mike Johnson is fighting to figure out how to meet President-elect Donald Trump’s sudden demands — and keep his own job — while federal offices are being told to prepare to shutter operations ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline.
Trump said early Thursday that Johnson will “easily remain speaker” for the next Congress if he “acts decisively and tough” in coming up with a new plan to also increase the debt limit, a stunning request just before the Christmas holidays that has put the beleaguered speaker in a bind.
And if not, the president-elect warned of trouble ahead for Johnson and Republicans in Congress.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
The chaotic turn of events, coming days before Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the government and as lawmakers were preparing to head home for the holidays, sparks a familiar reminder of what it’s like in Trump-run Washington. Trump led Republicans into the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 Christmas season, and interrupted the holidays in 2020 by tanking a bipartisan COVID-relief bill and forcing a do-over.
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For Johnson, who faces his own problems ahead of a Jan. 3 House vote to remain speaker, Trump’s demands kept him working long into the night to broker a new deal. Vice President-elect JD Vance joined the late-night meetings at the Capitol, bringing his young son in pajamas.
Trump’s allies even floated the far-fetched idea of giving billionaire Elon Musk the speaker’s gavel, since the speaker is not required to be a member of Congress.
“We had a productive meeting. We’re going to continue to work through the night, in the morning to get, to get an agreement,” said Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) as he left the speaker’s office late Wednesday.
But adding an increase in the debt ceiling to the package is a show-stopper for Republicans who routinely vote against more borrowing. The current debt limit expires in 2025 and Trump wants it off the table before he joins the White House.
As senior Republicans broke from a Thursday morning meeting in the House speaker’s office, there was no resolution yet.
Rep. Tom Emmer, the third-ranking Republican in leadership, said the situation was “fluid.”
Federal funding is scheduled to expire at midnight Friday, a current temporary government funding bill running out as Congress was preparing a new one to keep things running for a few months.
The bipartisan compromise brokered between Johnson and the Democrats, whose support will be needed in the deeply split House and Senate to ensure passage, also tacked on much-anticipated disaster aid — $100.4 billion for states hard hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural calamities.
But the 1,500-page bill outraged conservatives for its spending and extras. Musk, in his new foray into politics, led the charge. The wealthiest man in the world used his social media platform X to amplify the unrest, and GOP lawmakers were besieged with phone calls to their offices telling them to oppose the plan.
Trump announced his own displeasure late Wednesday, and told Johnson to start over — with the new demand on the debt limit, something that generally takes months to negotiate and that his own party generally opposes.
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House Democrats emerged from a closed-door meeting Thursday angry about the collapse of bipartisan legislation, saying a deal is a deal and they were standing by the agreement they reached with Johnson and Republicans.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said a government shutdown would hurt the economy and federal workers who won’t get paid.
“Elon Musk and Donald Trump don’t have to worry about that. They’ll be dining on caviar at Mar-a-Lago,” McGovern said. “They live in an alternative universe, so none of this affects them. But it affects the people I represent. And I’m pissed we’re in this situation right now.”
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said, “Elon Musk has pulled the rug out from underneath Mike Johnson. But we have an agreement, and we expect that agreement to be vindicated and fulfilled.”
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget had provided initial communication to agencies about lapse planning last week, according to an official at the agency.
Late Wednesday, the Republicans floated a new idea for a scaled-back bill that would simply keep the government running and provide the disaster assistance to hurricane-ravaged regions.
But almost as soon as it was being mentioned, Trump posted on social media he didn’t like that plan either.
Scalise said he understands Trump “wants to start the presidency on a sound footing and we want him to as well.”
But, Scalise said, “obviously we’ve got to get through this first and we’re going to get it resolved, hopefully tomorrow.”
Mascaro and Freking write for the Associated Press. AP writers Jill Colvin, Stephen Groves and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
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