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A deal to keep the US federal government funded is in doubt after Donald Trump urged his Republican allies in Congress to reject a “foolish” and “inept” compromise struck earlier this week with Democrats.
The president-elect’s broadside on Wednesday has left Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson clambering for a new agreement with just two days to go before funding expires and federal authorities are forced to halt certain programmes and suspend payments to some employees.
“The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling,” Trump said in a statement on X on Wednesday. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
Trump’s intervention means Johnson, a close ally of the president-elect, must scrap the existing bipartisan deal or risk Trump’s wrath by calling a vote in the House of Representatives to approve it.
The latest funding debate caps a turbulent few years for Congress, where right-wing Republicans have repeatedly threatened their own leadership in the House, including a revolt that unseated then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.
With a narrow Republican majority in the House, any defections from Johnson’s own party would force him to rely on Democrats to pass a so-called continuing resolution to provide temporary funding to the federal government.
The Democrats’ leader in the chamber, Hakeem Jeffries, said: “House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support.”
The funding bill would keep the roughly $6.75tn federal budget running at current levels until March 14, when Republicans will control Congress following last month’s victory in the general election. The money keeps a wide range of federal programmes afloat, including defence, regulators, national parks and air travel safety.
But Trump and other allied Republicans including billionaire Elon Musk have criticised what they say are spending “giveaways” to Democrats in Johnson’s bipartisan bill.
Trump and his vice-president-elect JD Vance said in their statement that Republicans needed to “GET SMART and TOUGH”, and “if Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF”.
Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — who have been tasked by Trump with slashing government spending when he regains the White House next year — raged against the bill on social media on Wednesday, and threatening what Musk called “pork-barrel politicians” who might back it.
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years,” Musk said in one post on his social media platform X.
He also called the bill “terrible”, “criminal” and “a scam”.
Congress has until the end of Friday to pass the 1,500-page bipartisan bill, which was only presented on Tuesday.
Without funding, the government would halt certain programmes and send home “non-essential” federal workers. Federal employees would stop receiving their pay, including those serving in the military.
While social security cheques would still be mailed out, certain administrative matters could be delayed.
The bipartisan deal includes about $110bn in disaster relief, $10bn in economic aid for farmers, funding to replace a collapsed bridge in Maryland and pay rises for members of Congress.
Musk took exception to the pay increase for politicians.
“How can this be called a ‘continuing resolution’ if it includes a 40% pay increase for Congress?”
Trump also called for any funding deal to include an increase in the US debt ceiling, a rule governing how much money the federal government can borrow.
“The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed,” he and Vance said.
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