Trump Blasts Speaker Johnson’s Bill Days Before Possible Govt Shutdown
President-elect Donald Trump has criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposed spending bill.
With the government facing a shutdown on December 21 without a continuing resolution, Johnson and the Republican-controlled House are working to pass a bill that would fund the government through March 14. The proposed legislation spans nearly 1,500 pages and has drawn mixed reactions.
Some Republican hardliners oppose Johnson’s plan, while Elon Musk has labeled the bill an “insane crime against the American people.” CNN reported late Wednesday that Trump has privately expressed dissatisfaction with the resolution, reportedly urging Johnson to revise the bill.
“We just got some brand-new reporting from our Kaitlan Collins on Trump’s thoughts on this spending bill that is on Capitol Hill right now that seems to be quite in peril,” Jake Tapper said during CNN’s “The Lead.”
According to CNN reporter Lauren Fox, Collins reported that Trump described the legislation as a “bad” bill. Shortly after CNN’s coverage, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance publicly condemned the measure:
A statement from President Donald J. Trump and Vice President-Elect JD Vance:
The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.
Meanwhile, Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and concealed security failures that day. This bill would also grant Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.
Increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do so in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.
Republicans want to support our farmers, fund disaster relief, and prepare our country for success in 2025. The only way to achieve that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS, combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else betrays our country.
Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief.
THIS CHAOS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD A REAL PRESIDENT. WE WILL IN 32 DAYS!
In response to the backlash, Speaker Johnson addressed conservative criticisms of the bill during an interview on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning. He explained the reasoning behind the short-term funding proposal, which he argued was necessary to address urgent issues until March.
“This is the sausage-making process, OK? Here’s what this bill entails. It’s a short-term funding extension until March 14. And that would have been an easy thing relatively to pass. But here’s what happened. We also had to add, due to circumstances outside of any of our control, emergency funding. We have two major emergencies. We had a record historic hurricane season that we all know, Helene and Milton and the rest, that destroyed a big swath of the country,” Johnson explained.
“We have to have funding for that. That’s a hundred billion dollars to rebuild six states. And then on top of that, we have our farmers, our small farmers and ranchers, our food producers in this country, who are in jeopardy of going under permanently. They’ve had three lost years in a row, primarily because of ‘Bidenomics’ and inflation and lots of other factors outside their control,” he continued.
“So for the first time since I’ve been in Congress, guys, in eight years, it’s not just farmers and ranchers urgently needing the help. We now have the creditors, the lenders, the banks who give them those loans, who are saying we have to have a stopgap measure. So when you add those things in, here’s the other thing to remember: Our Democrat colleagues who have to vote on all this, they don’t prioritize agriculture. They don’t—they don’t really care that much about farmers and ranchers because they’re in rural red districts, right?” Johnson added.
He concluded, “But that’s our food supply. If we crush domestic food supply, that is a direct threat to national security. We need all those small farmers and ranchers. And that’s included in the bill as well.”