Donald Trump is not yet officially back in business at the White House, but the words of the American president-elect are already being heard. The Republican, who will return to power on January 20, 2025, expressed, on Wednesday December 18, his opposition to a budget agreement negotiated in the American Congress between Republican and Democratic elected officials, thus raising the specter of a paralysis of the Federal state.
Mr. Trump and his future vice-president, JD Vance, spoke out, in a joint statement, against the text, affirming that any concession to the Democrats represented “a betrayal of our country” and that Republicans should not let themselves be intimidated by the threat of the famous shutdown.
The Republican President of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, presented on Tuesday this budget agreement of more than 1,500 pages, negotiated with the Democrats, which notably included more than 100 billion dollars (nearly 96.5 billion euros) aid against natural disasters requested by Joe Biden, as well as $10 billion in aid to American farmers, but also an increase in the salaries of elected representatives of Congress.
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The text made it possible to finance the federal state until mid-March and thus avoid the federal blockage before the fateful hour of Friday evening, midnight. Without this, the United States would experience a paralysis of federal public services, with the result being technical unemployment for hundreds of thousands of civil servants, the freezing of several social benefits, or even the closure of certain daycare centers. A situation which is therefore extremely unpopular, especially as Christmas approaches.
“Kill the text!” », says Elon Musk
As soon as the agreement negotiated in Congress was published, Trumpist elected officials – supporters of a slimming down of the federal state – protested at what they considered to be irrational spending. This bill represents “a Christmas present to the left”launched Russell Fry, representative of South Carolina.
Elon Musk, ally of Donald Trump and appointed by the latter to head a commission to slash public spending, also did not hold back from attacking the agreement in a long series of posts on Wednesday on his network social “Kill the text!” »wrote the richest man in the world on several occasions. “Any elected official in the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending plan deserves to lose their election in two years”also launched the boss of Tesla and SpaceX.
Donald Trump rejoiced in a publication on his Truth Social platform that this bill “ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive” either in the process of “die quickly”.
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For the Biden administration, a lack of budget agreement risks “harming hard-working Americans” and of “create instability” in the country. Donald Trump “ordered the Republicans to paralyze the state”accuses, in a press release, the spokesperson for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre, also urging them “to stop playing political games” and to “keep your word” before the Friday evening deadline.
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“You break the agreement between the two parties, you assume the consequences that follow”also launched, as a warning, the leader of the Democrats in the lower house, Hakeem Jeffries.
Uncertain next steps
Before the press release from Donald Trump and JD Vance, Mike Johnson had nevertheless defended the agreement. Passing this text, “We’re making a clean slate and setting up the conditions for Trump to come roaring back with his ‘America First’ agenda.”declared the elected Republican to Fox News.
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Democrats denounced Elon Musk’s influence on the announcement of the future president. “Tonight, Donald Trump and Republican elected officials kowtowed to the real president-elect, Elon Musk”castigated the New York elected official, Nydia Velazquez. “It is now he who gives the orders,” Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said on X.
The next steps to avoid a shutdown are now uncertain. For some Trumpist elected officials, a new bill providing for much less spending should be quickly presented to Congress, a solution to which the president-elect adheres, but not unconditionally. On Truth Social, Donald Trump assured that such a text would be of no use if it was not accompanied by an increase in the debt ceiling.
Because the United States has the particularity of regularly coming up against a legal constraint concerning its credit capacity: this debt ceiling – or the maximum amount of debt – which must be formally raised or suspended by Congress. A suspension decided in 2023 expires at the beginning of January 2025 and the United States should reach the ceiling in June. Donald Trump therefore declared on Wednesday that he wanted to avoid this « guillotine », “a vicious trap” put in place according to him last year by the Democrats. Without raising or resuspending the ceiling, “I will fight until the end”wrote Donald Trump, saying he wanted everything to be resolved before January 20.
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