Trump looms large as Congress faces shutdown threat and ‘dizzying’ to-do list

Donald Trump won’t arrive back in the White House until January. But he’ll have fingerprints over every piece of the lame duck Congress.

Donald Trump won’t arrive back at the White House until January. But the president-elect will have fingerprints over every piece of the lame-duck session of Congress. A week after Election Day, lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill to the fast-approaching threat of a government shutdown – which, like other big-ticket items, will require a legislative fix – as well as to internal Republican Party leadership contests that Trump is already wielding influence over. For now, it remains an open question what strategy House Speaker Mike Johnson will pursue for the funding fight. Trump and his team haven’t yet informed GOP leaders how he wants to proceed on those key issues, including the December 20 government spending deadline, according to two people familiar with the discussions. While many Republicans would prefer Johnson strike a spending deal with Democrats during the lame-duck Congress, plenty of conservatives are urging the GOP to punt everything until Trump has the reins in 2025 – a fight that could complicate Johnson’s road to the speakership in January if Republicans hold the House. Pushing the funding fight to next year would put Trump in position to have far greater say. But Republicans would risk a chaotic fight in Congress that could dominate the early days of Trump’s second term in office, leaving little time for the GOP to address other priorities. “If you ask me what my strategic opinion would be, it would be to figure out how to clear the decks so we don’t have a spending fight in March that divides Republicans and unites Democrats,” said GOP Rep. Kelly Armstrong, who is leaving the House at the end of this term to become North Dakota governor. “I get why people want to do it. I understand their theory on it. I think it’s silly to have a fight in March.”