Trump blows up ‘ridiculous’ federal spending deal as deadline looms

House Republican leaders were struggling to cobble together support within their party for a bipartisan stopgap federal spending bill on Wednesday when President-elect Donald Trump weighed in hard against it and imploded the deal.

In a joint statement with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, Mr. Trump trashed the 1,500-plus-page legislation that would fund the government until March 14.

The two men called on Republican leaders to reject it and renegotiate a “clean” measure with Democrats that would eliminate a trove of spending and policy extras.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance told lawmakers to debate an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling, the current suspension of which is set to expire after January, to avoid fighting about lifting the borrowing limit when Mr. Trump takes office.

Congress, now back to the drawing board, faces a Friday deadline to pass a stopgap bill to keep the federal government from shuttering.

“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,” Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance posted, with several words capitalized for Trumpian emphasis.

The president-elect’s kiss of death capped a day of anger on Capitol Hill. Republicans pored over the bill’s language and discovered spending and policy provisions that left them outraged.

The fury expanded on social media, where Mr. Trump’s government efficiency advisers, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, denounced the spending bill.

“It’s full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways & pork barrel politics,” Mr. Ramaswamy posted on X.

Mr. Musk called the bill “outrageous” and said any lawmaker who votes for it “deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, who hoped to “clear the runway” for Mr. Trump by passing the bill, was forced to abandon plans to bring it to the House floor this week.

“We are looking at a number of options,” said Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican.

Mr. Johnson retreated to his office late in the day as some Republicans seething over the contents of the bill threatened to block his reelection to the speaker’s chair in January.

In addition to funding the government, it included $10 billion in aid to farmers and $100 billion in disaster relief for victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

It was also loaded with spending and sweetheart deals for Democrats, including a legal shield for members of the committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Trump and other Republicans said the committee should be investigated.

The measure also enabled a pay increase for lawmakers, the first in 15 years. The bill would have allowed a 3.8% increase for lawmakers, most of whom earn $174,000 annually.

Another provision would have exempted lawmakers from purchasing insurance on the Obamacare marketplace and instead allowed them to enroll in the gold-plated Federal Employee Health Benefits program.

Fingerprints of liberal lawmakers were found throughout the bill.

One provision called for removing the word “offender” from a federal workforce development program and substituting the term “justice-involved individual.”

Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance frowned on the congressional pay raises, which they said would have been given “while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.”

Lawmaker pay has remained stagnant since 2009.

House Democratic leaders were unhappy about having to renegotiate the spending deal.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, told reporters that “an agreement is an agreement” and said Republicans would “own the consequences” of a government shutdown.

Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said lawmakers should not start over. “We have an agreement. Let’s vote on it,” he said.

Mr. Trump called on lawmakers to pass a “clean” short-term spending bill, known on Capitol Hill as a continuing resolution, or CR. Such a move would exclude emergency funding for disaster relief and farmers, which Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance said they support.

“I think we would have been much better off just having a clean CR,” said Rep. Kat Cammack, Florida Republican.

The spending mess caused a flurry of anger among Republicans, who targeted Mr. Johnson. He must have the support of nearly every Republican lawmaker if he is to retain the speaker’s gavel when the next Congress convenes on Jan. 3.

His future as the top Republican appeared shaky late Wednesday as the Republicans watched to see whether he would devise a plan that could win the backing of conservatives and Mr. Trump.

Rep. Andrew Ogles of Tennessee floated names of other Republican lawmakers who could serve as speaker next year. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said he planned to vote for someone other than Mr. Johnson.

Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, said letting government funding expire, which would lead to a partial shutdown, would be “master-class dumb.” Still, he sympathized with Mr. Johnson’s difficulty getting House Republicans to unify behind a plan.

“The problem that the speaker has over there is he’s got a lot of free-range chickens, and they wander off, and he can’t corral them all. So President Trump’s going to have to help him corral,” he said.