President-elect Donald Trump says he would prefer the US debt ceiling be completely abolished — not just raised — as congressional Republicans’ feud over a funding bill intensifies on Capitol Hill ahead of a government shutdown deadline.
Abolishing the debt ceiling would be the “smartest thing it [Congress] could do. I would support that entirely,” the incoming president told NBC News on Thursday.
“The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge. It doesn’t mean anything, except psychologically,” Trump, 78, said of the debt ceiling, which controls how much the federal government can borrow to pay its bills.
The proposal quickly got support from one of Trump’s most vocal rivals in Congress, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
“I agree with President-elect Trump that Congress should terminate the debt limit and never again govern by hostage taking,” Warren wrote on X.
Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance put Congress into a tailspin Wednesday after issuing a statement slamming the more than 1,500-page spending bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had negotiated with Democrats — and demanding that Congress raise the debt ceiling before the end of President Biden’s term.
By Wednesday evening, the stopgap funding measure was dead, and Republicans are trying to come up with a solution to force another option that would make its way through the Senate before the federal government’s lights go dark at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
“If there’s going to be a shutdown, we’re going to start it with a Democratic president,” Trump said of the looming possibility.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters late Wednesday that his conference was looking at raising the debt ceiling.
Johnson, who negotiated with Democrats to try to get the first funding bill through before the deadline, is also facing pressure from some House Republicans to step down as speaker.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wildly floated that Elon Musk could fill the role, writing on X, “Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk … think about it … nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds).”
Trump also questioned Johnson’s authority over the House after the revolt — despite telling Fox News earlier Thursday that the speaker would “easily remain” in power in the next Congress.
“We’ll see. [The funding deal] they had yesterday was unacceptable,” referring to Johnson’s short-term funding bill. “In many ways it was unacceptable. It’s a Democrat trap.”
Musk, one of the chairs of the Department of Government Efficiency, was the catalyst that ignited the firestorm about the bill on Wednesday, as he called on Republicans to “kill” the “scam” bill — and argued that any member who voted for it should be out in two years.
“I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement,” Trump told NBC, saying their views are “very much on track” and the tech billionaire was “looking at things from a cost standpoint.”
