Current Affairs

Trump is not back in office yet, but he is already causing chaos


President-elect Donald Trump still has a month to go before returning to office, but he shows he’s already firmly back in power over Republicans in Congress — and he’s not afraid to throw them into a last-minute tailspin.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump blew up a bipartisan agreement to avoid a government shutdown with an ad on He also called for an increase in the federal debt ceiling so that would not happen on his watch — something neither party discussed as part of this deal.

“We must pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want,” Mr. Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance said. He said in a joint statementIn reference to the Democratic majority leader in the Senate. “Republicans have to be smart and tough. “If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then they have called their bluff.”

Why did we write this?

When President-elect Trump called the bipartisan funding bill a bad deal, it fell apart. The result could be a government shutdown – reflecting Trump’s pattern of occasionally throwing Congress into turmoil.

The federal government will shut down on Friday at midnight if Congress does not act, and currently there is no clear path forward for congressional leaders to reach an agreement.

Bell was not very popular, but he would have avoided closure

The temporary spending bill had already drawn criticism from Republicans across the political spectrum, who were angry at Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson for approving it. Attached to the package were various unrelated provisions – including a significant pay raise for lawmakers as well as $110 billion in disaster relief, and a health policy change aimed at cutting out pharmaceutical middlemen to cut costs. The bill was only a stopgap measure to fund the government until mid-March, and it also included some provisions badly wanted by Republicans in Congress, including a one-year extension of the farm bill that included large subsidies for farmers. No one liked the bill, but it looked like it would have enough bipartisan support to pass before Mr. Trump intervened.

Mr. Trump and his allies say this pivot is necessary to pave the way for the new administration to get off the ground quickly. Notably, they want to avoid pressure to raise the debt limit in mid-2025, when Democrats may try to use the issue as an opportunity to gain leverage against the Republican agenda.

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