Shutdown Looms as Game Theory Plays Out
President-elect Donald Trump has long supported House Speaker Mike Johnson — hosting him on election night, bringing him to the Army-Navy college football game last weekend and backing him privately despite conservative complaints about the House’s actions.
That’s why it stunned many Republicans when Elon Musk — with Trump’s go-ahead — helped tank Johnson’s short-term government funding deal Wednesday afternoon by unleashing a barrage of social media posts starting early in the morning and calling the deal “criminal.”
Trump followed up with threats to oppose any Republican who voted for it in a 2026 primary. And he injected another complication, calling for the debt ceiling — a tool Republicans have used for years to pressure Democrats into spending cuts — to be lifted or eliminated entirely before he takes office. With funding expiring at the end of the night on Friday, Trump’s last-minute demands pushed the government perilously close to a shutdown.
The broadsides from Mar-a-Lago left Republican lawmakers wondering — given how much the president-elect and the House speaker communicate — why it took until the final moment for the dramatic schism between Trump and Johnson to burst into view, and for the deal to fall apart.
“It’s all very strange,” one GOP lawmaker told CNN. “This was completely avoidable.”
By Thursday evening, Trump was backing Johnson again as he tried to advance a different plan that sought to appease the GOP standard bearer’s demands. The 24-hour whiplash both underscored Johnson’s weakness and Musk’s opening with Trump. The bill — which would have extended government funding for three months, lifted the debt ceiling until 2027, extended the farm bill and included $110 billion for disaster relief — failed, with 38 Republicans voting against it.
The chaotic series of events has left House leadership scrambling, and the episode has raised questions about how Republicans on Capitol Hill, with a narrow majority and competing factions, will function once Trump takes office.
And now Democrats, who helped Johnson save his job last spring, say they are through helping the Louisiana Republican manage his unruly conference. — CNN
Our Take: What a difference 24 hours makes.
As discussed yesterday, the disastrous continuing resolution bill is dead, but it didn’t die before the People rediscovered some of their power.
“Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.” President Donald Trump, January 20, 2017
Promises made, promises kept.
On Thursday, the legislators came back with a 116 page bill that removed much of the objectionable spending. Republicans and two democrats in the House are on board. Minority Leader Jeffries is now leading entirely partisan opposition.
I don’t love the idea of raising the debt ceiling, but if the boss needs the room for his intended negotiations and actions in 2025 and beyond, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on raising it this, hopefully final, time.
If the transformational change program is successful, and the FedGov is put back in its constitutional box, then we should be lowering the debt ceiling in years to come, as we return to sound monetary policy and launch the golden age.
The fact is, I trust Trump’s instincts and leadership. He’s earned the benefit of the doubt, and I’m not willing to bet against him — and certainly not before he’s even taken his seat.
I’m already bought in. I’m a change champion for the transformation of modern America, for making America constitutional again.
I don’t need convincing but, if I did, the CR outrage cycle would have moved the needle of my support. That’s the point. — Ashe in America
