What's New
U.S. senators were stunned when President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk threw a wrench into a bipartisan plan to avert a government shutdown.
Why It Matters
Trump's directive to tank the spending plan threw Congress into chaos as lawmakers must now go back to the drawing board. They have until Friday — just days before Christmas — to pass the continuing resolution, or the government will shut down.
What To Know
"This has come as a surprise to me," Republican Senator Susan Collins, who represents Maine told HuffPost's Igor Bobic.
Democratic Vermont Senator Peter Welch described the developments as "a bolt of lightning coming out of the sky."
"Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH," Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance said in a statement opposing the deal on Wednesday evening.
They called to increase the debt ceiling, saying that while it's "not great," they would rather see it happen "on Biden's watch," referring to outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden.
The statement came after Musk, who will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) starting next year, came out in sharp opposition to House Speaker Mike Johnson's government funding bill.
"Shutting down' the government (which doesn't actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill," Musk wrote in one post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Welch alluded to Musk's involvement in tanking the deal, saying, "To have it overturned because of the lobbying of one person is a real statement of the weakness of what's going on in the House [of Representatives]."
A number of House Republicans have publicly opposed Johnson's spending deal in recent days. In light of that, the House speaker is reportedly weighing cutting $100 billion in disaster relief funds from the package.
That rankled a number of Republican lawmakers.
"If Congressional leaders intend to leave DC before the holidays without passing disaster recovery, they should be prepared to spend Christmas in the Capitol," North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis wrote on X. "I'll use every tool available to block a CR that fails Western North Carolina communities in need of long-term certainty.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham echoed Tillis, saying, "To anybody who thinks that disaster relief is pork, come to where I live, see what happened in my state, in North Carolina and Georgia."
Graham's comments were a not-so-subtle allusion to a social media post from Musk which said, "Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?" The post was accompanied by a photo of a printed copy of the bill.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
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