According to recent reports, President-elect Donald Trump is “not happy” with House Speaker Mike Johnson for failing to include his “main ask” in the version of the spending bill that finally passed. The bill that passed Friday night narrowly avoiding a government shutdow while omitting an extension or the outright elimination of the debt ceiling.
The bill, which was later passed by the Senate 85-11, will fund the government for three months. In the House, it easily passed the two-thirds threshold in a 366-34 vote. Initially, there was substantial pushback against early versions of the bill, which faced outspoken opposition from Trump and Elon Musk.
Speaking about the bill to Fox News Digital last week, Trump said, “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.” Furthermore, Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett indicated that Trump is very displeased that his provision was not included in the bill.
“Trump is NOT happy that the spending deal doesn’t include the debt ceiling, according to [a] person who spoke with him this p.m.,” Everett wrote on social media. However, Everett explained that it wasn’t clear if Trump would try to thwart the bill in the Senate. “Not clear he’ll publicly try to stop the bill in the Senate but Trump’s not thrilled the bill doesn’t contain his main ask[.]”
The American Tribune recently reported on comments regarding the bill in a recent White House press briefing in which Karine Jean-Pierre blamed the GOP for the inability to reach a consensus on the bill at the time “Thanks, Karine, so I wondered if the President has spoken to any lawmakers personally about the potential for a shutdown,” a reporter asked the press secretary.
KJP answered, “So let me first say this, and I know you’ve seen our statements coming from here this week about this particular issue, and we’ll just continue to reiterate that Republicans blew up this deal they did, and they need to fix this period.” Continuing, Jean-Pierre said, “They have to Republican needs to stop playing politics with a government shutdown.”
Accusing the GOP of representing outside interests, she said, “And they are doing the bidding. They’re doing the bidding of their billionaire friends. That’s what we’re seeing at the expense of hard-working Americans.” KJP further noted, “And just to quote you something that we saw today, and I’m sure you all saw from the Punch Bowl News, which is, and I quote, ‘this has been an absolutely disastrous week for the speaker, the President Elect, Donald Trump, and Republicans on Capitol Hill.’”
“This is a mess that they created, and they need to fix this,” Jean-Pierre continued blasting Republicans. Returning to the question, KJP added, “On your question the president, I can confirm just moments ago, the President was able to connect with leader Schumer and leader Jeffries and and also, just to add that the President does indeed get regular updates, he has been getting ready regular updates from his team. His team has been in touch with members, congressional members from both sides of the aisle, and certainly he will continue to stay updated.”
Watch KJP below:
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