Trump issues new spending bill demands with government shutdown looming

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., floated the idea of Elon Musk replacing Mike Johnson, R-La., as House Speaker next year as a potential partial government shutdown looms.

"The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress..." Paul wrote on X, which Musk owns. "Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk... think about it... nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds)."

Democratic political strategist Jimmy Williams balked at the idea.

"As I’m wont to say repeatedly: Senators should stick to Senating and House Members should stick to their Chamber," Williams wrote. "No House Member gives a damn what a Senator thinks about who should be Speaker."

Musk, alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, already have been tasked with leading the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) come the new Trump administration.

EXCLUSIVE: President-elect Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will "easily remain speaker" for the next Congress if he "acts decisively and tough" and eliminates "all of the traps being set by Democrats" in the spending package. 

Fox News Digital spoke exclusively with the president-elect Thursday morning, just hours after the bipartisan deal to avoid a partial government shutdown was killed. 

"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. 

Vice President-elect JD Vance met with Johnson Wednesday night. The two spoke about the potential continuing resolution for about an hour. Vance said the two had a "productive conversation," and said he believes they will "be able to solve some problems here" and will continue "working on it." 

The chaos surrounding the effort to pass legislation to avert a government shutdown is putting the upcoming speaker vote in focus, as Johnson has struggled to keep the party fully united. 

But the president-elect told Fox News Digital that Johnson will "easily" keep his role as speaker. 

"If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker," Trump told Fox News Digital. 

The speaker vote is set for Jan. 3, 2025. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference on March 20, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., arrived at the U.S. Capitol just before 8 a.m. ET Thursday morning. He did not answer questions from reporters as he walked in.

Fox News Digital exclusively reported on Wednesday that House GOP critics of how Johnson is handling funding talks are already beginning to float names of possible challengers.

Two GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital that House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.; House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., were all mentioned in early talks about alternatives.

One of the two lawmakers said they had not heard from any of the three, adding, "That would be suicidal."

A person close to Donalds told Fox News Digital in response, "At this time, the Congressman has not made any statements regarding the future of House leadership."

A spokesperson for Emmer told Fox News Digital, "Whip Emmer supports Speaker Johnson and is focused on doing the job he was elected to do."

Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

The Treasury Department assesses that the United States is more than $36.1 trillion in debt. As for the national deficit, which happens when federal government spending exceeds its revenues, the United States has been sitting at more than $624.2 billion since October.

A government shutdown looms, as President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance are essentially telling House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to renegotiate a massive stop-gap funding measure that the incoming administration decried as an affront to government efficiency. Trump and Vance want a slimmed down spending bill that supports farmers and natural disaster victims, as well as controversially increases the national debt limit – a move they say is better done under President Biden’s watch rather having the debate in mid-2025 when the Treasury will likely again run out of borrowing authority.

The revolt by conservatives and the sudden infusion into negotiations of President-elect Trump, Vice President-elect Vance and Elon Musk has House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others struggling to find a way out of their political cul-de-sac and avoiding a government shutdown at 12:00:01 a.m. ET Saturday. 

Fox is told that Mr. Trump’s unexpected demand to tackle the debt ceiling in this package complicated matters exponentially. Many conservatives won’t vote for any debt ceiling increase. And Democrats are balking because Republicans reneged on the deal. 

Democrats have bailed out majority Republicans on every major fiscal bill this Congress. They appear to be through helping Republicans. 

Moreover, there may not be enough time to avoid a shutdown. Especially if a new bill is to be produced- and conservatives demand that it lay fallow for three days before voting. 

That does not even address getting it through the Senate. 

So, many Members with whom Fox spoke last night are now resigned to a VERY HIGH chance of a government shutdown - perhaps one which bleeds through Christmas. There simply isn’t a combination of votes which unlocks this puzzle yet. 

We also haven’t even addressed disaster aid. Some conservatives are opposed to that for North Carolina and Florida without offsets. The fate of assistance after Hurricanes Helene and Milton is now in serious limbo. 

The 1,547-page interim spending bill to avoid a government shutdown is effectively dead.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has all but yanked the plan off the floor after President-elect Trump, Vice President-elect Vance and Elon Musk torched the package to avoid a government shutdown this weekend and fund the government through March 14. 

Had House Republicans had the votes to pass the bill – without leaning too heavily on Democrats – Republicans may have been able to pass the bill late Wednesday afternoon before the intervention of Mssrs. Trump and Vance. But there was just too much grassroots pressure, sparked by Musk on X and elsewhere.

The stopgap spending package proved unpopular due to its size, and various legislative ornaments festooned on the bill like a Christmas tree. Conservatives were expecting Johnson to handle the spending plan differently this year at the holidays. But it backfired. Badly.

It’s notable that Mr. Trump did not weigh in until the 11th hour. He also demanded a debt ceiling increase. That’s something which faced the President-elect in the first quarter of the year and threatened to derail any legislative agenda or potentially spook the markets.

Johnson’s decision to veer off course – despite touting the bill heartily on Fox Wednesday morning – underscores several things.

This is a sign of things to come once President-elect Trump is in office. And that could present problems for Johnson as he may be at the whim of decisions by the new President?

Why did Johnson pull the bill?

It was wildy unpopular with his rank and file. But it devolved further once Musk and the President-elect got infused themselves. 

In many respects, Johnson’s decision to pull the bill was all about January 3. That’s the day of the Speaker’s vote. With 434 members to start the new Congress, Johnson needs 218 votes. Otherwise, he lacks a majority and cannot become Speaker. The House must vote repeatedly - as it did in January, 2023 - before electing former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., five days later in what was the longest Speaker’s race since the 1850s. 

Johnson tried to salvage himself in the Speaker’s vote by adding emergency agriculture spending to the bill. But Johnson is now trying to salvage himself by coming up with a new bill. 

The irony is that Johnson did not want to create drama before Christmas with a spending package. But drama is exactly what he got in what quickly became the worst Congressional holiday standoff since the fiscal cliff in 2012 or a government shutdown threat in 2014.

So here’s the $64,000 Question: What play does Johnson call next?

Does he do a clean CR to fund the government with nothing attached? Is it a bill that just re-ups current funding coupled with disaster aid? Do they attach a debt ceiling suspension as President-elect Trump has requested?

And then the biggest question of all: can ANYTHING pass at all? Especially without votes from the Democrats?

Johnson has a tranche of conservatives who won’t vote for any CR at all. Many of them would also not vote for a debt ceiling increase, either. 

And even if there is a new bill, do conservatives insist on waiting three days to ponder that bill? That triggers a government shutdown right there.

The deadline is 11:59:59 p.m. ET Friday. 

So this is going to require someone to pull a rabbit out of a hat. 

President-elect Trump’s maneuver today is reminiscent of a similar move he made in December, 2019 which sparked the longest government shutdown in history. 

Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then-Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and others thought they had a deal to fund the government and avoid a Christmas-time shutdown. 

The Senate voted for the bill. Senators even sat in the back of the chamber and sang Christmas carols during the vote. 

Mr. Trump then balked at the last minute. House Republicans followed suit. The government shut down for more than a month