Elon Musk (L) shakes hands with Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump back stage during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds on October 05, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday came out against a Republican-backed government spending bill, siding with Elon Musk‘s crusade against the package and raising the odds of a government shutdown.
Trump is opposed to the continuing resolution put forward by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to a source familiar with the president-elect’s thinking, who was granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
The source confirmed that Trump told a Fox News host he is “totally against” the CR.
Later Wednesday afternoon, Vice President-elect and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, released a joint statement from him and Trump declaring that politicians should “pass a streamlined bill” that doesn’t give Democrats “everything they want.”
“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling,” read the statement posted by Vance on X.
“Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” their statement read.
Their opposition adds significant weight to Musk’s sustained effort throughout the day to tank the bill, which he says is laden with wasteful pork-barrel spending.
If there is no legislation passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president to fund the government after Friday night, the federal government would start enacting a partial shutdown that could include employee furloughs.
Musk did not appear concerned with the prospect of a government shutdown one week before Christmas.
“‘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 of dozens of X posts railing against the CR.
In another post, Musk asserted that “no bills should be passed” by Congress until Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
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