House Republican leaders filed into the Speaker’s office this week, their original plans to quickly pass a stopgap funding measure and head home for the holidays scuttled by President-elect Donald Trump.
“I haven’t seen the tweet,” a number of lawmakers responded to reporters’ questions about Trump’s social media posts panning the funding deal and demanding Congress either extend the debt limit suspension or do away with it altogether.
The disruption and drama was reminiscent of Trump’s first term, when the GOP leaders frequently found their best laid plans upended by an impulsive president.
It was also a preview of what the next four years may look like for many lawmakers who may have grown accustomed to the more low key and conventional style of President Joe Biden.
“Pretty obvious that it is President Trump’s government at this time and basically President Biden is no longer involved,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said.
The former and future president’s around-the-clock social media posts and lawmaker strong arming will provide further challenges for House Republicans, who were already struggling to govern with a razor thin majority and a combative right flank.
Trump’s willingness to jeopardize the funding agreement and risk shutting the government portends rocky times ahead for Republicans, as they attempt to pass even more ambitious plans such as tax cuts and an overhaul of the immigration system.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) got a glimpse of the future this week when he released a 1,500-odd-page funding bill negotiated with Democrats. His weeks of work were squashed by an influx of tweets not only from Trump but his new billionaire ally Elon Musk, who stirred up conservative members with their biting critiques of the plan.
Republicans then cobbled together a bare-bones continuing resolution, which earned Trump’s blessing before falling spectacularly short on the House floor Thursday night.
“It’s a taste of things to come,” former House member and newly elected Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said after the first deal blew up. “The House is going to be ungovernable.”
Trump does have some advantages this time compared to his first term. He now commands more loyalty from Republicans in both chambers, particularly since he has spent the last few years actively seeking to defeat those who have crossed him in GOP primaries.
“He is going to be the leader of the nation for the next four years,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said of Trump’s influence. “It’s good to have built these relationships, and the muscle memory of working together.”
Before he was elected to the House, Van Orden had demonstrated his loyalty to Trump. He was at Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 “Save America” rally and marched down the mall to the Capitol. Van Orden said he never entered the Capitol that day when a mob of the president’s supporters stormed the building.
But even as Trump critics within the party have been increasingly drummed out, there are still a number of conservatives who remain outspoken on fiscal issues. That helps explain why the president-elect couldn’t muster enough support to pass a slimmed down stopgap bill.
Trump even threatened a primary challenge to Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who wouldn’t go along with his plan to raise the debt ceiling. But even in the wake of Trump’s attacks on Roy, the Texas lawmaker declined to speak ill of the president-elect.
“The problem with the speaker over there is he has a lot of free range chickens and they wander off and he can’t corral them so President Trump is going to have to help him corral them,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.
Democrats Needed
But some Republicans are making the case that there’s a lesson here about how they will still need Democrat votes on this funding package and on other issues in the next Congress.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the slim majority in the House and the need for 60 votes on most legislation in the Senate means that leaders need to find ways to get bipartisan support.
“You’re just going to have to live in the world the Founding Fathers gave us, which is a world of checks and balances,” Graham said.
Some Republicans defended the interference of Musk and Trump by arguing the original bipartisan plan was bad.
“It was an awful agreement that needed to not be passed, I appreciate what Elon and Vivek are doing,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said. He was referring to Vivek Ramaswamy who along with Musk is spearheading the government efficiency effort.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has so far let the House and the Trump team grapple with the budget negotiations. “I hope they figure out a path forward,” he told reporters Thursday.
Democrats have raised concerns that Musk will hold a heavy influence over Congress and jeopardize any potential for bipartisan dealmaking in the next Congress. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the bipartisan agreement was blown up after Musk weighed in.
“We don’t know if he has just decided that he is going to be the kingmaker on Capitol Hill,” Van Hollen said of Musk. “This moment should be a wakeup call to everybody as we look to the next four years because this Republic will be on very shaky grounds if one or two tweets can throw the whole place into disarray.”
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