Trump says if shutdown happens, ‘let it begin now’
Donald Trump has made his political calculations clear in his latest post on Truth Social, writing that he wants a government shutdown to happen while Joe Biden is president:
If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under “TRUMP.” This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!
Key events
Besides bringing the federal government to the brink of a shutdown, Donald Trump has also lately been pressuring European countries to agree to buy more US-produced oil and gas, the Guardian’s Jill Ambrose reports:
The US president-elect, Donald Trump, has warned the EU that it will face trade tariffs on its exports to the US unless its member states buy more American oil and gas.
Trump reignited fears of a looming trade war between the US and the EU in his first public statement regarding trade since he was elected president in November.
“I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!,” he said in a post on his social media site Truth Social.
The US is the world’s the largest producer of oil and has also emerged as the biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the bloc since Russian supplies of pipeline gas to its European customers petered out after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
This week, a US government study, commissioned by the Biden administration, found that increasing US exports of LNG could lead to a gas price spike of up to 30% for domestic gas customers.
The study, which analysed the economic, environmental and other costs of growing the US’s LNG capacity, also found serious consequences for the climate due to its high carbon emissions. The report is expected to complicate Trump’s pre-election promise to quickly approve more exports of LNG.
Reporters at the Capitol have spotted Republican House speaker Mike Johnson arriving at his office.
“We’re expecting votes this morning, so y’all stay tuned,” Johnson said. “We got a plan.”
Asked if he had reached a new agreement, Johnson replied: “We’ll see.”
Trump says if shutdown happens, ‘let it begin now’
Donald Trump has made his political calculations clear in his latest post on Truth Social, writing that he wants a government shutdown to happen while Joe Biden is president:
If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under “TRUMP.” This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!
Trump repeats demand for suspension of debt ceiling
Donald Trump repeated his demand for the suspension – or even elimination – of the federal borrowing limit and continued a political crisis which threatens a US government shutdown on Friday at midnight.
In an early morning post on his Truth Social social media platform Trump said: “Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.”
How unusual are US government shutdowns?
Robert Tait
For the first 200 years of the US’s existence, they did not happen at all. In recent decades, they have become an increasingly regular part of the political landscape, as Washington politics has become more polarised and brinkmanship a commonplace political tool. There have been 20 federal funding gaps since 1976, when the US first shifted the start of its fiscal year to 1 October.
Three shutdowns in particular have entered US political lore:
A 21-day partial closure in 1995 over a dispute about spending cuts between President Bill Clinton and the Republican speaker, Newt Gingrich, that is widely seen as setting the tone for later partisan congressional struggles.
In 2013, when the government was partially closed for 16 days after another Republican-led Congress tried to use budget negotiations to defund Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare.
A 34-day shutdown, the longest on record, lasting from December 2018 until January 2019, when Donald Trump refused to sign any appropriations bill that did not include $5.7bn funding for a wall along the US border with Mexico. The closure damaged Trump’s poll ratings.
What happens when a US government shutdown takes place?
Robert Tait
Here are a few more details about what happens when the US government shuts down:
Thousands of federal government employees are put on furlough, meaning that they are told not to report for work and go unpaid for the period of the shutdown, although their salaries are paid retroactively when it ends.
Other government workers who perform what are judged essential services, such as air traffic controllers and law enforcement officials, continue to work but do not get paid until Congress acts to end the shutdown.
Depending on how long it lasts, national parks can either shut entirely or open without certain vital services such as public toilets or attendants. Passport processing can stop, as can research – at national health institutes.
Federal inspections ensuring food safety and prevention of the release of dangerous materials into drinking water could stop for the duration of the shutdown.
About 10,000 children aged three and four may also lose access to Head Start, a federally funded program to promote school readiness among toddlers, especially among low-income families.
The latest chaos was sparked when Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan to prevent a government shutdown before the Friday deadline and called for the outright elimination of the debt ceiling.
The US is one of the few countries with a statutory limit on how much debt the federal government can accumulate.
Here’s what to know about the US debt ceiling:
David Smith
Before the vote, Democrats and Republicans warned that the other party would be at fault if Congress allowed the government to shut down.
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, told reporters that the package would avoid disruption, tie up loose ends and make it easier for Congress to cut spending by hundreds of billions of dollars when Trump takes office next year. “Government is too big, it does too many things, and it does few things well,” he said.
But Democrats dismissed the bill as a cover for a budget-busting tax cut that would largely benefit wealthy backers such as Musk, the world’s richest man, while saddling the country with trillions of dollars in additional debt.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said during the floor debate: “How dare you lecture America about fiscal responsibility, ever?”
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman, told reporters: “So who is our leader Hakeem Jeffries supposed to negotiate with? Is it Mike Johnson? Is he the speaker of the House. Or is it Donald Trump? Or is it Elon Musk? Or is it somebody else?”
Some Republicans objected that the bill would clear the way for more debt while failing to reduce spending. Congressman Chip Roy said: “I am absolutely sickened by the party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility.”
David Smith
Critics of the incoming Trump administration described the breakdown as an early glimpse of the chaos to come when Trump returns to the White House on 20 January. Musk’s intervention via a volley of tweets on his social media platform X was mocked by Democrats as the work of “President Musk”.
“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious,” Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, told reporters. “It’s laughable. Extreme Maga Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown.”
Despite Trump’s support, 38 Republicans voted against the new package along with nearly every Democrat, ensuring that it failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage and leaving the next steps uncertain.
The defiance from within Trump’s own party caught many by surprise.
The latest bill would have extended government funding into March, when Trump will be in the White House and Republicans will control both chambers of Congress. It also would have provided $100bn in disaster relief and suspended the debt. Republicans dropped other elements that had been included in the original package, such as a pay raise for members of Congress and new rules for pharmacy benefit managers.
At Trump’s urging, the new version also would have suspended limits on the national debt for two years – a move that would make it easier to pass the dramatic tax cuts he has promised and set the stage for the federal government’s $36tn in debt to continue to climb.
US government shutdown looms after House rejects funding bill
Good morning US politics readers. The US government faces a looming shutdown after the House rejected a bill late on Thursday that would have agreed a temporary funding deal just before a crucial deadline.
By a vote of 174-235, the House of Representatives rejected a Trump-backed package, hastily assembled by Republican leaders after the president-elect and his billionaire ally Elon Musk scuttled a prior bipartisan deal.
Now lawmakers face a last-minute scramble to secure a new deal before the Friday night deadline – or all nonessential government functions will pause.
Thousands of federal government employees would be put on furlough, meaning that they are told not to report for work and go unpaid for the period of the shutdown, although their salaries are paid retroactively when it ends.
Other government workers who perform what are judged essential services, such as air traffic controllers and law enforcement officials, continue to work but do not get paid until Congress acts to end the shutdown.
A shutdown just before the holiday season hits its peak, could be disastrous for millions of Americans.
