Trump shakes up spending talks by calling on Congress to scrap debt ceiling

In a move that stunned Washington, President-elect Donald Trump is now urging Congress to eliminate the debt ceiling, significantly upending discussions among lawmakers, who are at an impasse over federal spending and government funding, which should expire this weekend.

While some on Capitol Hill balked at Trump's latest request, the president-elect was unwavering Thursday. He said he was determined to maintain his position that lawmakers should both oppose any sweeping spending measures including “traps” from Democrats and abolish the debt ceiling before he takes office l next year.

“First, the debt ceiling should be completely removed,” Trump said in a telephone interview. “Number two, a lot of different things they thought they were getting [in a recently proposed spending deal] will now be 100% discarded. And we'll see what happens. We will see whether or not we will have a shutdown under the Biden administration. But if it is going to happen, it will happen under Biden, not Trump. »

Trump's comments, which sent negotiators in both parties back to the drawing board before government funding expired at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, came a day after he called a bipartisan spending deal “ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive” and said any legislation to extend federal funding should also include plans to “end or extend” the debt limit.

Yet Trump, who built a decades-long business career as a dealmaker and dealmaker, appeared to leave room for House Speaker Mike Johnson and other leading Republicans to find consensus on new options that he considers sufficient.

When asked how he would like to see this standoff end, Trump responded, “It's going to end in a number of ways, which would be great.”

Trump said discussions were ongoing and it was too early to give more details on the contours of a final deal.

“We’ll see,” Trump said. “It’s too early.”

But Trump said he would continue to closely monitor how Democrats might seek to influence any revised deal and expressed displeasure with how the original bipartisan agreement contained Democratic provisions.

“We caught them setting traps. And I wasn't going to tolerate that,” he said. “There will be no traps from the radical left, the crazy Democrats.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a billionaire who spent nearly $300 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates in the November election, also opposed the initial bipartisan spending deal, which he he called it “terrible”. When Johnson abandoned him, Musk wrote on X: “The voice of the people has triumphed! »

Trump's focus on the debt ceiling, which limits the federal government's borrowing power, comes as he faces a showdown over the issue in the first year of his next term. According to several people close to Trump, this prospect has caught his attention because he wants to devote his time and political capital next year to other issues and would prefer that Congress take care of them now.

Even if the current federal borrowing cap is suspended until January 1, 2025, the Treasury Department could take steps to avoid defaulting for a few months next year. Still, the government could face an economically burdensome default early next year if the debt ceiling is not extended or addressed by Congress.

Asked Thursday about Trump's call to tackle the debt ceiling, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, said “the debt ceiling issue and the discussion is for least premature.

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Robert Costa

Robert Costa is the chief elections and campaigns correspondent for CBS News, where he covers national politics and American democracy.

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