The “shutdown” will not take place: the United States narrowly avoided a budgetary paralysis that would have sent hundreds of thousands of civil servants home for the holidays without pay. Congress largely adopted, this Saturday, December 21, a law which ensures funding for the federal state until mid-March. This is therefore the end of a tumultuous sequence of several days, largely influenced by Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
The vote took place shortly after the midnight local time deadline. But the White House office responsible for declaring a state of “shutdown” ultimately did not do so due to the imminent adoption of the text in the Senate. A budgetary paralysis would have meant technical unemployment for hundreds of thousands of civil servants, the freezing of social assistance or even the closure of certain nurseries.
An extremely unpopular situation, especially just before Christmas. “This is a good result for America and for Americans,” said the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. The text notably includes more than 100 billion dollars in aid for American regions recently devastated by natural disasters.
A first text “killed” by the Trump-Musk duo
As of Tuesday, December 17, Democrats and Republicans alike thought they had avoided any threat of “shutdown”, since the conservative President of the Republican House, Mike Johnson, announced that the two camps had reached a consensus on a budget text. But the Christmas spirit did not last long: first Elon Musk, then Donald Trump, dynamited the agreement the next day. “Kill the text,” the richest man in the world had urged elected officials in Congress on his social network X, where he denounced spending which, according to him, is leading America to “bankruptcy”.
The boss of SpaceX and Tesla was followed a few hours later by the president-elect, who castigated an “extraordinarily onerous” text. Their opposition had nipped the bill in the bud and offered a foretaste of Donald Trump’s second term, with an uncompromising style, even if it meant causing chaos, reminiscent of his first four years in the White House. “If there is to be a government shutdown, let it start now, under the Biden administration, and not after January 20,” the president-elect wrote Friday morning on his Truth Social network.
Donald Trump’s return to power on January 20 will be accompanied by a major difference this time: the omnipresence at his side of Elon Musk, a controversial figure who has only grown in power over the years. recent months. Many elected Democrats have denounced the growing influence of the multi-billionaire, to the point of ironically speaking of a “President Musk”, to whom Donald Trump would be reduced to the role of vassal.
Standoff between Trump and Congress
Mainly responsible for the discussions, speaker Mike Johnson was pressed on the one hand by the Democrats to return to the negotiated text, and on the other by certain conservative elected officials who refused en bloc any text that did not include budget cuts to compensate for the new aid. . In view of the divisions on the right, the influential Republican elected official James Comer warned on Thursday that for Congress to adopt a text, it would be necessary “obviously to have support on the Democratic side”.
Despite the agreement between the two camps, Donald Trump continued to reveal his political agenda by adding a condition to the adoption of this new bipartisan text: the introduction of raising the American debt ceiling for two years, in order to be free in its economic decisions when it comes to power, without having to compromise with parliamentarians when voting on future budgets. Despite terrible pressure on his own camp – Donald Trump threatened this week to lead primary campaigns against those who do not go his way – the law adopted Friday does not include an increase in the debt ceiling. “This vote illustrated the limits of the power of the president-elect to keep the rebellious Republicans in the House of Representatives in line,” reassures the New York Times.
Usually verbose on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump has remained silent on the new plan. Mike Johnson, who is soon to be reappointed, assured after the vote in the House that he had been in “constant contact” with the president-elect, and that he was “happy with the result”. The media Semafor however reported the dissatisfaction of Donald Trump who, although having put the country’s budgetary security at stake, did not obtain what he wanted. Mike Johnson also said he had spoken with Elon Musk, who praised on X the speaker’s “good job” in renegotiating the budgetary text downwards.