WASHINGTON (AP) — After days of threats and demands, Donald Trump had little to show for it as lawmakers passed a budget bill early Saturday, narrowly avoiding a pre-Christmas government shutdown.
The president-elect successfully pushed House Republicans to abandon some spending, but failed to achieve his core goal of raising the debt limit. This showed that despite his decisive election victory and frequent promises of revenge, many of his party members still openly reject him.
Trump’s decision to participate directly in budget discussions a month before taking office showed that he is still better at breaking deals than making them, and it means his second term will be marred by the characteristic infighting, chaos and brinkmanship. It was predicted that there was a possibility of losing. his first.
“be careful. Buckle up. Strap on.” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., a senior budget official.
A look at Trump’s agenda shows that the coming years will be filled with opportunities for similar confrontations. He wants to extend the tax cuts he signed seven years ago, shrink the size of government, raise tariffs on imports and crack down on illegal immigration. Many of these efforts will require congressional consent.
For many Trump supporters, chaos may be a goal in itself. Of those who voted for him this year, 37% said they wanted “complete and total upheaval,” according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of more than 120,000 voters. Additionally, 56% said they wanted “real change.”
But over the past few days, it has become clear that Trump may have difficulty achieving his goals quickly. This is especially true when Republicans hold only a slim majority in the House and Senate. Some lawmakers already seem fed up with the lack of a unified strategy.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said the budget fight was “a valuable lesson in how we act together.”
“There are no layups and it makes things more complicated,” he said.
The trouble began when top lawmakers released copies of the bill, known as the Continuing Resolution, needed to keep the federal government functioning until March. The first person to start agitating against the social media bill, calling it excessive spending, was not the president-elect, but Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and close associate of Trump.
Trump eventually entered the fray. He ordered Republicans to cancel bipartisan deals they struck with Democrats. And he called for an increase in the debt ceiling, the limit on how much the government can borrow, to prevent those difficult issues from emerging while he is in charge.
He pressed on even though his demands had changed. First, he wanted to eliminate the debt ceiling entirely. He then wanted to delay it until 2027. He then floated an extension until 2029.
President Trump claimed that Democratic President Joe Biden would be responsible if the plant was shut down.
“Every Republican, even Democrat, should do what’s best for our country and vote “YES” on this bill tonight!” President Trump wrote on Thursday ahead of a vote on legislation to further raise the debt limit.
Instead, 38 Republicans voted against it. It was a stunning disregard for Trump, whose power over his party at times seemed almost absolute.
“Without this we should never do business.” he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social.
President Trump said there would have to be a government shutdown if he didn’t get what he wanted. He also said “Republican obstructionists must be removed” and that he would face a major challenge if members of his own party refused to agree. He singled out Texas Rep. Chip Roy with names and insults.
But lawmakers ultimately ruled out raising the debt ceiling and a final agreement was passed early Saturday.
Musk and other Trump allies sought to make this a victory because the final bill was significantly scaled back and omitted unpopular items such as pay raises for lawmakers. Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, wrote in X that Trump was already running Congress before he took office.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had been in “continuous contact” with Trump and that the president was “clearly satisfied with this outcome.”
If Trump agreed, he didn’t say so himself.
After days of frequent social media messages, Trump went silent again on Friday. He did not react or release a statement about the final vote. Instead, he went to his resort in Florida to play golf.
Caroline Levitt, Trump’s spokeswoman, said the president-elect helped block the original deal, which was “filled with Democratic pork and pay raises for members of Congress.”
“In January, President Trump and the governor will continue the important mission of reducing waste in Washington, one bill at a time,” she said. DOGE refers to the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory panel led by Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
The circus-like atmosphere of the fight for funds was reminiscent of Trump’s first term. A budget standoff at the time led to a government shutdown after President Trump demanded money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. After 35 days (the longest lockdown in history), he agreed to the deal without the funds he wanted.
It was a political low point for Trump, with 60% of Americans blaming him for the shutdowns, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll at the time.
Even then, Trump did not stop trying to bend the Republican Party to his will. He certainly won’t do that now.
He is pressuring his party over his Cabinet nominations, with Republican senators reluctant to make some of his most controversial choices, including anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and Fox News host. We are putting pressure on you to join us. Pete Hegseth took over as Secretary of Defense.
Next year’s spending debate appears certain to further test Trump’s influence in the House. Many conservatives see the rapid growth of federal debt as an existential threat to the country that must be addressed. But some Republicans fear a voter backlash if there are deep cuts to federal programs Americans rely on.
Concerns about deficit spending could grow further if President Trump pursues the costly tax cuts he promised during his presidential campaign, including repealing taxes on tips, Social Security and overtime pay.
He also wants to extend tax cuts signed into law in 2017 that were set to expire next year. He called for lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate further from 21% to 15%, but applying it only to companies producing in the United States.
Trump said he would pay for the decline in imports with aggressive new tariffs that economists warn will lead to higher prices for consumers.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said cutting spending would continue the divide between Trump and House Republicans.
“That was never a campaign promise by President Trump, but it is a top priority for House Republicans,” he said.
There was no sense on Saturday that the hostility was abating. Some Republicans have criticized House leaders for failing to secure Trump’s “blessing” in the original agreement. Democrats cast Trump as Musk’s second fiddle.
While Trump remained silent, Biden announced that he had signed the budget bill.
“This agreement represents a compromise that means neither side got everything they wanted,” he said. “But it rejects the path Republicans have pursued to accelerate tax cuts for billionaires and ensures that the government can continue to operate at full capacity.”
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___ Boak reported from West Palm Beach, Florida, and Colvin reported from New York.
