A government shutdown is looking increasingly likely after an embarrassing number of House GOP rebels bucked Donald Trump Thursday night.
A bill that Trump had demanded—which included raising the debt limit—went down in flames on the House floor with 38 Republicans joining Democrats to oppose it. Trump killed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s initial bipartisan plan, which was expected to easily coast through Congress despite facing backlash from conservatives.
Senior Republicans have told Trump that shutting the government down would be bad for the start of his second term, with it potentially delaying key parts of his agenda, a GOP lawmaker told the Daily Beast.
Without a spending bill passed by both houses of Congress by midnight Friday, hundreds of thousands of federal workers would be furloughed just days before Christmas. That includes essential workers like air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents who would be forced to work without pay during the slog of the holiday travel season until the government reopens.
A shutdown would almost certainly cause travel delays during one of the busiest seasons of the year, experts say—an ignominious note for Trump to begin his second term on.
Even though Thursday’s floor action was a setback for Trump, Johnson’s leadership position is simultaneously in jeopardy.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)—a Capitol insider who nonetheless does not get to vote on Johnson’s position—expressed doubts for his survival.
Trump applauded Johnson for following his orders and putting his bill to a vote. But GOP lawmakers are frustrated with how the speaker has handled government spending negotiations.
Multiple lawmakers told the Daily Beast Thursday that the Louisiana Republican’s speakership is on shakier ground than it was after Election Day, mainly over his handling of short-term government funding.
“People are not happy with him right now,” a GOP moderate said. “But without an actual replacement I don’t see how it could be serious.”
“Johnson is f—ed,” another Republican lawmaker told the Beast.
The Trump-backed bill’s demise Thursday night followed a raucous floor debate during which Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) broke his gavel trying to quell the fury.
Trump’s soon-to-be DOGE men, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, have been rallying MAGA support for shutting down the government, infuriating GOP moderates. And several centrists said they felt they should have put his initial bipartisan plan on the floor on Wednesday before Trump could take to social media to blow it up.
“Most of us are angered that Musk and Vivek jumped in on the 11th hour,” one moderate GOP lawmaker told the Daily Beast. “The thought that we demand everything and give Dems nothing is unrealistic and shows a total naivety to how Congress works.”
Musk, whose legislative meddling earned him the nickname “President Musk” from Democrats, blamed the party for Trump’s humiliating defeat.
Trump also echoed the sentiment in a statement, noting that nearly all of the party’s congresspeople voted against the measure.
“Nearly every single House Democrat just voted against government funding and to shut down the government,” he wrote. “As Vice President-elect JD Vance said, Democrats “asked for a shutdown and I think that’s exactly what they’re going to get.”
Johnson survived Trump’s wrath—temporarily, at least—by bowing to the president-elect’s demand that any funding deal include one of Trump’s top policy obsessions: increasing the debt limit, the cap on how much the government can borrow to pay off its debts.
Trump threw Johnson a surprise curveball by demanding lawmakers increase the U.S. debt ceiling—an issue that previously had nothing to do with negotiations to avoid a government shutdown. Different factions within the GOP Party are now fuming at the speaker for not moving faster to get a stopgap funding bill passed.
Another GOP lawmaker who asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive negotiations said Johnson is “alienating members” across the party’s spectrum, from the hard right to the pragmatic center.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) expressed such dissatisfaction with Johnson—who she has already unsuccessfully tried to oust—that she floated replacing him with DOGE master Elon Musk.
Musk had been furiously tweeting his opposition to a bipartisan spending deal, indicating he’d rather shut the government down.
Next steps on a government funding plan remain unclear, and some members fear it is a preview of what the next two years will look like.
“Just totally frustrated with the current situation and the realization that this is probably how things will be handled for the next two years,” a Republican lawmaker told the Beast.
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