Trump and Musk send DC in tailspin with spending bill attacks as government shutdown nears: Live updates
The proposed continuing resolution, championed by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, would have kept agencies running at current funding levels through to mid-March 2025
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump and JD Vance appear to have guaranteed a bitter showdown with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill after demanding that the House and Senate effectively force the federal government to shut down, rather than pass a stop-gap funding bill championed by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Johnson’s bipartisan deal would have kept agencies running at current funding levels through to mid-March 2025 but the president-elect and his deputy issued a statement complaining the bill does not address the nation’s statutory debt ceiling, urging the passage of a “streamlined” alternative version “that doesn’t give... the Democrats everything they want.”
Democrats have meanwhile mocked tech billionaire Elon Musk’s undue influence over the incoming administration, with Senator Bernie Sanders ironically praising “President Elon Musk” on X.
While Trump told Fox News Digital Johnson will “easily remain speaker” he added a caveat reiterating his earlier statement. Among the names floated as potential replacements for Johnson is Musk, with Senator Rand Paul noting the role is not limited to members of Congress.
Meanwhile, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been removed from Trump’s sprawling election interference case by Georgia’s Court of Appeals which ruled her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade was a conflict of interest.
Trump demands government shutdown after Elon Musk rants over stopgap funding bill
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have demanded that Republicans in the House and Senate effectively force the federal government to shut down rather than pass a stopgap funding bill that would have kept agencies running at current funding levels through the end of March 2025.
The pair aired their greivances on X on Wednesday, shortly after Trump cheerleader Elon Musk posted multiple times railing against the bill and spreading false claims about it.
Read more from Andrew Feinberg and Eric Garcia here:
Trump demands government shutdown after Elon Musk rants over stopgap funding bill
Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have raged against the bill while Trump remained silent until the final hour
Trump and Vance bash spending bill and throw government funding in doubt
Donald Trump and JD Vance have set up a showdown with Republican lawmakers after demanding that the House and Senate effectively force the federal government to shut down, rather than pass a stopgap funding bill.
The bill, championed by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, would have kept agencies running at current funding levels through the end of March 2025.
In a statement posted to X by Vance, the incoming president and vice president groused that the bill doesn’t raise the nation’s statutory debt ceiling and accused legislators of “considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney.”
The pair also complained about the bill not declining an annual pay increase for members of Congress who haven’t gotten a raise in nearly two decades, and urged passage of “a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”
Trump cheerleader Elon Musk also posted on X dozens of times, spreading false claims about the bill and urging lawmakers to reject it.
Trump pardoning Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes would be ‘frightening’ for democracy, judge says
The judge overseeing the case of a criminally convicted far-right militia leader warned that the prospect of a potential pardon “is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country.”
Stewart Rhodes, who founded the far-right anti-government military group the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of seditious conspiracy for orchestrating an attack culminating in a violent attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s election loss.
Read more:
Trump pardoning Oath Keepers founder would be ‘frightening’ for democracy, judge says
Far-right militia leader was sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiring to commit an act of treason
Eric Adams says he hasn’t asked Trump for a pardon
Eric Adams told Fox News that he hasn’t asked Trump for a pardon and added that his attorney is “going to handle every avenue to pursue justice.”
Trump and Vance say spending bill would ‘give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney’
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.
Meanwhile, Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day. This bill would also give Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.
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? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.
Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.
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. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief.
THIS CHAOS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD A REAL PRESIDENT. WE WILL IN 32 DAYS!
Starmer presses ‘need for allies to stand together with Ukraine’ in Trump call
Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to US president-elect Donald Trump and “reiterated the need for allies to stand together with Ukraine,” Downing Street has said.
The two men spoke on Wednesday afternoon, in a conversation that also touched on conflict in the Middle East and the the Prime Minister mentioned need to “work together” to ensure peace.
There have been concerns about whether the US will maintain its level of support for Ukraine when Mr Trump re-enters the White House in January.
Read more:
Starmer presses ‘need for allies to stand together with Ukraine’ in Trump call
There have been concerns about whether the US will maintain its level of support for Ukraine when Mr Trump re-enters the White House.
Johnson looking at Plan B after spending package faces Trumpworld criticism
Speaker Mike Johnson is considering a plan B as Trump allies oppose the current spending deal on the table to fund the government.
Johnson is now looking at a “clean” continuing resolution, according to The Hill, which would mean the removal of the additional provisions that were initially included in the spending package, which measures 1,500 pages.
The additional provisions included disaster aid and economic assistance for farmers.
One of those blasting the package was Elon Musk.
Trump himself told Fox News he was against the package.
Hawkish Iran policy to return with Trump
With the end of Joe Biden’s administration on the horizon, American foreign policy is in flux.
Donald Trump, the president-elect, remains in Mar-a-Lago for now, but even without a presidential seal behind him has taken to holding discussions with world leaders beyond the typical congratulatory calls which occur in the post-election period.
And it’s increasingly becoming clear that US-Iran policy will be an arena where one of the biggest shifts in the US’s posture will occur. A Wall Street Journal report in November unveiled the discussions underway about “maximum pressure 2.0” — a return to an updated version of the hardline policy platform the first Trump administration deployed against Iran with the expressed intention of cutting off the country’s nuclear program and weakening its government and state economy.
John Bowden reports.
Trump is bringing a hawkish Iran policy back in with him
Biden’s visionless Iran policy gives way to a return to ‘maximum pressure’
Watchdog warns Trump and his cronies will look to attack unfavorable non-profits
President-elect Donald Trump and his GOP colleagues are set to take aim at progressive non-profits they view as unfriendly, a watchdog has warned.
Trump and his Republican allies could utilize the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service to conduct politically motivated investigations and enact laws to limit their work, according to Adrienne Watson, a former White House and Democratic National Committee spokesperson at the Congressional Integrity Project.
Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, D.C.
Trump and his cronies will look to attack unfavorable non-profits, watchdog warns
Watchdog calls out ‘worrying progression of Trump’s authoritarianism that would undermine our democracy’
CNN anchor presses MAGA lawmaker on GOP’s Liz Cheney investigation: ‘Isn’t this banana republic stuff?!’
CNN anchor Jim Acosta confronted Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Wednesday over a House Republican subcommittee siding with President-elect Donald Trump and concluding that former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney should be prosecuted for investigating what occurred when Trump incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol after losing the 2020 election.
‘Isn’t this banana republic stuff?!” Acosta wondered at one point.
Justin Barangoa reports.
‘Isn’t this banana republic stuff?!’ CNN host to GOP rep on Liz Cheney investigation
“Is this about Trump getting revenge and House Republicans going along with it?” CNN’s Jim Acosta wondered during a heated exchange with Rep. Tim Burchett on Wednesday.
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