Government funding plan collapses after Trump issues demands

The stopgap spending plan negotiated between House Republicans and Democrats to avoid a government shutdown appears to be dead two days before the deadline after it was condemned by President-elect Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Speaker Mike Johnson's previous plan is done with and won't be brought to a vote.

Johnson's original plan called for extending government spending at current levels until March and added other provisions like relief for disaster victims and farmers and a pay raise for members of Congress.

In a joint statement Wednesday afternoon, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance called on Congress to "pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want."

"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. It is Schumer and [President Joe] Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief," Trump and Vance said.

But later Wednesday evening, Trump threatened any Republican in the House who voted for a clean bill.

"Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried," he posted on his Truth Social platform. "Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025."

In another post, Trump also pushed Republicans to deal with the debt limit before he takes office, saying if they don't, "he'll have to 'fight 'til the end' with Democrats."

"This is a nasty TRAP set in place by the Radical Left Democrats!" he wrote. "They are looking to embarrass us in June when [the debt limit] comes up for a Vote. The people that extended it, from September 28th to June 1st, should be ashamed of themselves."

Scalise said Wednesday night that Republicans were working on a new continuing resolution but haven't reached a deal.

"Still a lot of negotiations and conversations going on," he said. "There is no new agreement right now."

Scalise said there are "ongoing conversations" about linking raising the debt limit to a government funding plan, as Trump demanded.

"We've been having some conversations about debt limit as it relates to the CR," he said.

The House had no more votes scheduled Wednesday night and it was unclear when a vote might occur. Speaker Mike Johnson was huddling with members and staff in his office to find a path forward.

Earlier Wednesday, Musk came out against the bill, going so far as to threaten lawmakers who vote for it.

After posting on X that "This bill should not pass," Musk escalated his rhetoric, warning that "any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!"

"Please call your elected representatives right away to tell them how you feel! They are trying to get this passed today while no one is paying attention," he implored his over 200 million followers.

He later posted that "No bills should be passed Congress until Jan 20, when @realDonaldTrump takes office."

Congress faces a deadline of Friday, when the current government funding extension expires, for a shutdown.

Republican leaders have been discussing a clean short-term funding bill, but specifics are unclear, sources told ABC News. This comes less than a day after Republicans unveiled the legislative text that was the product of bipartisan and bicameral negotiations.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled Democrats were not inclined to vote for a clean bill.

“An agreement is an agreement," Jeffries told reporters.

“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt everyday Americans all across this country," he said. "House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the American people that results from a government shutdown or worse."

House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked about Musk's post during an interview on "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday morning. He appeared to not worry about Musk's post influencing the ability of the funding bill to get through both chambers ahead of a partial government shutdown deadline at the end of the day Friday.

"I was communicating with Elon last night. Elon and Vivek [Ramaswamy] and I are on a text chain together and I was explaining to them the background of this. Vivek and I talked last night about midnight, and he said 'look I get it.' He said, 'We understand you're in an impossible position,'" Johnson said.

Johnson said Musk and Ramaswamy, the two DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) leaders, are aware of the tough spot the speaker is in with a slim majority and Democratic control of the Senate and White House. DOGE is an outside-of-government (or private) operation.

"We gotta get this done because here's the key. By doing this, we are clearing the decks, and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the American first agenda. That's what we are going to run with gusto beginning January 3 when we start the new Congress," he said.

Johnson urged for Congress to pass this funding bill "so we don't have a shutdown."

"We get to March where we can put our fingerprints on the spending. That is where the big changes start," Johnson said.

Johnson, whose speakership has been characterized by beating back criticism from his far-right flank, had originally promised a clean bill that would solely extend current levels of government funding to prevent a shutdown. However, natural disasters and headwinds for farmers, necessitated additional federal spending.

In the end, the bill included $100 billion for recovery efforts from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and another $10 billion for economic assistance for farmers.

Johnson at a press conference said his hands were tied after "acts of God" necessitated additional money.

"It was intended to be, and it was, until recent days, a very simple, very clean [continuing resolution], stopgap funding measure to get us into next year when we have unified government," he said. "We had these massive hurricanes in the late fall, Helene and Milton, and other disasters. We have to make sure that the Americans that were devastated by these hurricanes get the relief they need."

Still, Republican spending hawks cried foul, accusing Johnson of stocking the bill with new spending without any way to pay for it and keeping the bill's creation behind closed doors.

“We’re just fundamentally unserious about spending. And as long as you got a blank check, you can’t shrink the government. If you can’t shrink the government, you can’t live free," Texas Rep. Chip Roy said.

Musk, too, mocked the size of the bill.

"Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?" he posted on X, along with a picture of the bill stacked on a desk.

-ABC News' Rachel Scott and Katerine Faulders contributed to this report.