Donald Trump, the Republican who was just elected president of the United States, received a concerning signal: Politico notes that his hold on the Republican Party is not absolute.
Trump publicly backed a temporary spending bill, but in the last 48 hours, 38 Republicans in the House of Representatives rejected it after the president-elect and his billionaire, Elon Musk, blocked a vote on the first package that House Speaker Mike Johnson mediated with Democrats. The “disobedience” of the Republicans was manifested even when Trump and his allies “threatened” those members of the party who went against the demands of the newly elected president.
The House eventually passed a different version of the government funding bill—one that did not include Trump’s demand for a national debt ceiling. At the same time, almost three dozen Republicans voted against the final version of the bill.
It’s the latest example of how Trump has faced the limits of his power, especially over his own party. Senate Republicans already dealt him a major blow when several senators made it clear they would not support Trump’s then-nominated attorney general, Matt Gaetz. Geatz later withdrew. And that was after they chose John Thune over Rick Scott as Senate GOP leader against the wishes of Trump allies.
Taken together, such early displays of defiance by rank-and-file Republicans on Capitol Hill suggest that the party is far from fully on board with the president-elect.
According to Matthew Bartlett, the way Trump reacts, how he deals with those who are not ready to make deals, is really just “preparing the battlefield and feeling the ground for the next four years.”
Republicans’ persistent resistance to raising the national debt ceiling, a politically sensitive issue, has thwarted Trump’s attempts to win them over to his demands.
“Republicans campaigned to cut spending and reduce the $35 trillion national debt. You can’t achieve that by suspending the debt limit,” wrote Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack on Thursday, December 19, on X’s social media.
Another Republican who opposed the bill on Thursday, Greg Lopez, stated that he was unable to support the resolution because it “removes the debt ceiling, creating an open checkbook for Congress to spend more money that it already has.” The resolution ignores the nation’s spiraling debt.
The resistance is an early indicator of where Republicans may diverge from Trump and a warning that while the president-elect has broad influence over Speaker Mike Johnson, that influence may not extend to all members of the party on every vote. And with such a slim majority in the House of Representatives, the defiance of just a few Republicans could have a significant impact.
Johnson clarified to reporters following the House vote that Trump backed the government funding bill’s final version. According to the speaker, he was in “constant contact” with Trump, and the president-elect “knew exactly” what the party was doing and why.
But according to Politico source, Trump pressured Johnson to spend more than a month finding a solution to the national debt ceiling problem. And hours after the Trump-backed bill failed, the president-elect began advocating for a temporary suspension of the national debt ceiling.
The situation surrounding the government funding bill has some Republicans worried that Trump won’t be able to do as much as he planned in his first term because he’ll be focusing on the wrong things.
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