President-elect Donald Trump is disappointed that the House of Representatives passed a spending bill on Friday night that did not include an extension or elimination of the debt ceiling.
The passage came just hours before a potential government shutdown. The bill was later passed by the Senate with an 85-11 vote.
The legislation, which funds the government for three months, easily cleared the two-thirds threshold to suspend the rules and pass the lower chamber. Lawmakers green-lit the bill 366-34 thanks to 196 Democratic and 170 Republican votes in favor. All 34 votes against were cast by Republicans.
On Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) vetoed an earlier funding bill after Elon Musk and Trump spoke out against it.
Trump abruptly demanded that the House raise or abolish the debt ceiling, which limits how much money the federal government can borrow.
The debt ceiling has occasionally been used as a weapon by congressional Republicans against Democratic presidents. Not surprisingly, Democratic legislators have expressed a willingness to support its elimination.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
However, the legislation passed on Friday did not include a debt ceiling provision.
Burgess Everett, Semafor’s congressional bureau chief, reported that Trump was irritated by this development.
“Trump is NOT happy that the spending deal doesn’t include the debt ceiling, according to [a] person who spoke with him this p.m.,”
Everett shared with X. “Not clear he’ll publicly try to stop the bill in the Senate but Trump’s not thrilled the bill doesn’t contain his main ask[.]”
As of this writing, the president-elect has made no public comments on the bill’s passage.
