Doubt was cast over Donald Trump’s multi-billion dollar deportation plan when 38 Republican rebels resisted his demands on the government funding bill over the weekend.
In a chaotic few days, the president-elect faced a significant challenge to his authority within the House, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown.
But it was not a test that Trump passed with flying colors.
Despite receiving a strong mandate from voters on November 5, ultra-conservative Republicans opposed his request, which was backed by Elon Musk, to increase the debt ceiling.
Thirty-eight fiscal conservatives – including Kentucky ‘s Thomas Massie and South Carolina’s Nancy Mace – defected on Thursday night despite Trump’s loud protestations on his social media platform, TruthSocial.
Then, hours before the deadline on Saturday morning, Congress passed a deal to keep the government funded through February – without lifting the debt ceiling.
Marc Short, Trump’s ex-legislative affairs director, warned that the rebellion ‘did not portend well’ for the president-elect’s bold strategy at the border. Trump’s mass deportation plan is estimated to cost north of $80 billion per year.
The president-elect previously pledged that the cost of his plans for the border are ‘not a question of a price tag.’
Donald Trump may face opposition on his mass deportation program from his own party over his demands to spend big on the border
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., left, and Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, leave a meeting to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s planned Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday. Van Duyne was one of 38 Republicans who defied the president-elect on Thursday
Congresswoman Nancy Mace was among the other GOP rebels before the compromise was passed
A report by the pro-migrant American Immigration Council estimated that deporting one million migrants per year would cost $88 billion.
Republicans by and large support Trump’s plan to secure the border but many are wedded to cutting fiscal spending and not adding to the trillions of dollars of debt the United States has built.
The interest payments on the country’s debts now exceed the entire defense budget.
Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, is one of the members of Trump’s party who refused the spending deal.
‘My position is simple — I am not going to raise or suspend the debt ceiling (racking up more debt) without significant & real spending cuts attached to it. I’ve been negotiating to that end. No apologies,’ he wrote.
Roy has been an outspoken critic of Johnson and compared the original deal to a ‘crap sandwich.’
‘We get this negotiated crap, and we’re forced to eat this crap sandwich,’ he said. ‘It’s the same dang thing every year. Legislate by crisis, legislate by calendar. Not legislate because it’s the right thing to do.’
When Trump takes office in January, nine of the Republicans who voted no on the bill will have been replaced.
Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, was one of 38 GOP members to rebel
The battle drew in Trump, DOGE co-chair Elon Musk and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to publicly tussle with fellow Republicans in addition to Democrats over the bill
Trump wanted to keep the government running without suspending the federal debt limit because it would allow him to think as big as his plan to round up and deport ‘the worst of the worst’ illegal migrants in an unparalleled crackdown
However, 25 of the rebel Republicans who voted no won their district by 10 or more points in November, with nine of them winning by more than 30 points.
With the GOP’s margin in the House slimming down to at least a 220-215 majority – assuming all of Trump’s Cabinet picks are confirmed and Republicans replace them in special elections – he will need to unify the party to get his border plans passed.
The House passed a government spending bill Friday evening to avoid a government shutdown set to ensue at midnight that night.
The continuing resolution (CR) that was passed by the House extends government funding until March and provides over $100 billion dollars in relief funds to hurricane victims, farmers and more.
The 118-page bill passed with bipartisan support in the House, 366 – 34, after Republican Speaker Mike Johnson negotiated with his Democratic counterpart Hakeem Jeffries over the details in multiple conversations on Friday.
The 11th-hour passing of the GOP spending deal came after Trump and Musk demanded Johnson capitulate to their policy priorities during his negotiations.
Johnson originally proposed a 1,547-page CR, but that was quickly derided by many in the GOP and most notably by Musk, who used the bully pulpit of his X app and his 200 million followers, to ridicule Johnson’s plan until the speaker went back to the drawing boards.
After deliberating with Trump’s team Johnson then produced a 116-page bill backed by the president-elect and Musk. But that went down in flames with a 174 to 235 vote on Thursday after nearly every Democrat and 38 House Republicans voted against it.
All day Friday Johnson and many House Republicans were sequestered in private meetings to discuss the best path forward. Many were unsure how the final vote was going to go.
Elon Musk praised Speaker Johnson’s efforts to eventually get a bill passed
But the speaker’s last gambit, coming just hours before federal funding expired, ultimately was a success.
‘The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,’ Musk posted on X Friday evening in approval.
‘It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces,’ his post continued.
On Friday morning, Speaker Mike Johnson said entering the U.S. Capitol that he expects votes.
‘We’ve got a plan,’ he claimed, but the details on how they would move forward successfully to avoid a shutdown remains unclear.
He gave another update Friday afternoon insisting the House will pass a spending deal with provisions to help farmers and disaster relief.
‘We will not have a government shutdown,’ he said.
Democrats were blasting Republicans Friday for scrapping the bipartisan deal worked out over weeks of negotiations and any move to include the debt ceiling.
But Jeffries reportedly indicated to his Democratic members that they ‘will live to fight another day’ and instructed his party to support Johnson’s plan.
The Republican Party will need to be united to pass Trump’s immigration plans.
‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan said all of the estimated 20 million people residing in the US illegally would be targeted by the campaign, noting: ‘Bottom line: if you come to the country illegally, you’re not off the table.’
Homan, who was head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump’s first stint in the White House, said he would revive the president elect’s ‘remain in Mexico’ program, in which Mexicans would have their asylum applications processed on their side of the border.
He also promised to close the southern border and build a wall – another flagship Trump pledge.
Trump has vowed to tackle migrant gangs using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – which allows the federal government to round up and deport foreigners belonging to enemy countries – as part of a mass deportation drive he christened ‘Operation Aurora.’
Aurora was the scene of a viral video showing armed Latinos rampaging through an apartment block that spurred sweeping, false narratives about the town being terrorized by Latin American migrants.
