President-elect Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that House Speaker Mike Johnson will “easily remain speaker” in the next Congress if he “acts decisively and tough” and avoids “all of the traps being set by Democrats” in the spending package.
Fox News Digital spoke exclusively with the president-elect Thursday morning, just hours after the bipartisan deal to prevent a partial government shutdown collapsed. “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 told the outlet.
Vice President-elect JD Vance met with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Wednesday night to discuss the potential continuing resolution. The two spoke for about an hour, with Vance describing the meeting as a “productive conversation.” He expressed confidence that they would “be able to solve some problems here” and committed to “working on it” further.
The turmoil over efforts to pass legislation to prevent a government shutdown has drawn attention to the upcoming speaker vote, as Johnson has faced challenges in maintaining full party unity, Fox noted further.
However, President-elect Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that he believes Johnson will “easily” retain his role as speaker.
“If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker,” Trump told Fox.
The speaker vote is set for Jan. 3, 2025.
A slimmed-down version of the once-massive 1,500-plus page spending bill also failed on Thursday. In all, 38 Republicans refused to approve the much smaller bill, which failed to pass the two-thirds muster by a vote of 174 to 235. A two-thirds majority was needed in order to suspend the rules to pass the bill without it going through a committee.
Two Democrats — Reps. Kathy Castor, Fla., and Marie Gleusenkamp Perez, Wash — broke ranks and supported the bill, Fox News reported.
The failed vote in Congress followed two days of infighting among lawmakers over a path forward on government spending—a battle that also drew in President-elect Donald Trump and his allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Meanwhile, the national debt has surpassed $36 trillion, with the deficit exceeding $1.8 trillion.
The new deal includes several key policies unrelated to government funding but is significantly more concise at 116 pages compared to its 1,547-page predecessor.
Similar to the original bill, the revised version extends the government funding deadline to March 14 while also suspending the debt limit—a move supported by Trump. It also includes $110 billion in disaster relief and an extension of the farm bill.
The deadline for a government shutdown is midnight Friday. It’s not clear that the GOP-led House will be able to cobble together a spending agreement that will win the requisite number of votes.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) unleashed a fiery tirade on the House floor Thursday, criticizing his Republican colleagues for supporting a bill that would raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars.
Roy’s outburst followed sharp criticism from President-elect Donald Trump on social media, accusing Roy of refusing to align with the party. In response, Roy delivered a passionate speech accusing his colleagues of betraying their constituents.
“What we’re doing right now is to continue to double down on the things that are destroying the Republic. We are going to increase the debt ceiling not just four trillion, that’s false. We have spent $4.7 trillion in additional debt in the last nineteen months,” he said.
“We’re gonna increase the debt by $5 trillion. That’s what’s gonna happen. Right here, by Republicans, increasing the debt $5 trillion, and what are you doing in the same bill? $110 billion unpaid for!” he railed.
“Because you never have any ounce of self-respect to go out and campaign, saying you’re going to do balance the budget, and then you come in here and pass $110 billion unpaid for!” Roy added.
“The fact of the matter is $330 billion, congratulations, you’ve added to the debt since you were given the majority again in November 5th. It’s embarrassing! It’s shameful!” the Texas Republican railed on.
“Yes, I think this bill is better than it was yesterday on certain respects, but to take this bill yesterday and congratulate yourself because it’s shorter in pages but increases the debt by $5 trillion is asinine! And that’s precisely what Republicans are doing,” he said. “I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible. It is absolutely ridiculous.”
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