24 hours that exposed a schism between Trump and Johnson and sent the government hurtling toward a shutdown
CNN
President-elect Donald Trump has long supported House Speaker Mike Johnson — hosting him on election night, bringing him to the Army-Navy college football game last weekend and backing him privately despite conservative complaints about the House’s actions.
President-elect Donald Trump has long supported House Speaker Mike Johnson — hosting him on election night, bringing him to the Army-Navy college football game last weekend and backing him privately despite conservative complaints about the House’s actions. That’s why it stunned many Republicans when Elon Musk — with Trump’s go-ahead — helped tank Johnson’s short-term government funding deal Wednesday afternoon by unleashing a barrage of social media posts starting early in the morning and calling the deal “criminal.” Trump followed up with threats to oppose any Republican who voted for it in a 2026 primary. And he injected another complication, calling for the debt ceiling — a tool Republicans have used for years to pressure Democrats into spending cuts — to be lifted or eliminated entirely before he takes office. With funding expiring at the end of the night on Friday, Trump’s last-minute demands pushed the government perilously close to a shutdown. The broadsides from Mar-a-Lago left Republican lawmakers wondering — given how much the president-elect and the House speaker communicate — why it took until the final moment for the dramatic schism between Trump and Johnson to burst into view, and for the deal to fall apart. “It’s all very strange,” one GOP lawmaker told CNN. “This was completely avoidable.” By Thursday evening, Trump was backing Johnson again as he tried to advance a different plan that sought to appease the GOP standard bearer’s demands. The 24-hour whiplash both underscored Johnson’s weakness and Musk’s opening with Trump. The bill — which would have extended government funding for three months, lifted the debt ceiling until 2027, extended the farm bill and included $110 billion for disaster relief — failed, with 38 Republicans voting against it.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two billionaires tasked with slashing government waste, are expected to recommend an agency-wide purge of spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, three sources familiar with their plans tell CNN.
A Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the case against President-elect Donald Trump and his alleged co-conspirators in the 2020 election.
The annual “Ugly Christmas Sweater Day” at Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin was to be a festive precursor to the long-anticipated winter break, a respite of nearly two weeks to gather with family and friends, unwrap presents and reflect on the year that passed.
While Donald Trump is returning to the White House with sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution, that won’t necessarily keep him out of the courtroom or free from testimony under oath.
The pilgrims mix Catholicism with Santería to honor St. Lazarus on a day that reveals many of Cuba’s complexities.
Police have identified the shooter in Monday’s deadly attack on a Madison, Wisconsin, private Christian school as a 15-year-old female student as they investigate the latest school shooting to devastate an American community.
The city of Aurora, Colorado, has re-entered the national debate on immigration after a man and woman were dragged from a unit in an apartment complex Monday night and bound, beaten and pistol-whipped until they were able to beg for their release, police say.
Tom Homan, who Donald Trump has tapped as his incoming administration’s “border czar,” said Wednesday night that plans are underway to deport undocumented immigrants at large scale, and that he’ll need funding from Congress to do so.
A US citizen arrested in 2023 in connection to running an “overseas police station” in New York City pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to conspiring to act as an agent of the Chinese government.
US officials are investigating potential national security risks tied to a telecom company founded in China whose internet routers are used by millions, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance on Wednesday sharply criticized a deal to fund the federal government negotiated by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, undermining support for the plan across Capitol Hill just days away from a shutdown deadline.