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Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) boasted that House Republicans defied Donald Trump on Friday night after the GOP conference did not accede to the president-elect’s demand.
The House overwhelmingly passed a three-month resolution to fund the government into March just hours ahead of a potential government shutdown. On Wednesday, Trump demanded the legislation raise or eliminate the debt ceiling, which limits the amount of amount the federal government may incur. In response, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) withdrew a pending bill and introduced a new one with a debt ceiling raise the next day.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
However, the bill the House passed on Friday did not include a debt ceiling provision, which reportedly displeased the president-elect.
“Trump is NOT happy that the spending deal doesn’t include the debt ceiling, according to [a] person who spoke with him this p.m.,” Politico’s Burgess Everett posted on X. “Not clear he’ll publicly try to stop the bill in the Senate but Trump’s not thrilled the bill doesn’t contain his main ask[.]”
Massie, who votes against most bills – including this one – hailed the lack of a debt ceiling provision, calling it an “institutional victory” for Congress. After the vote, CNN reported:
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called Speaker Mike Johnson’s handling of the situation “not that great,” saying he had a lack of “situational awareness” to know the first bill wouldn’t pass. He also expressed frustration at adding a debt limit increase into the bill, after President-elect Donald Trump demanded it on Thursday. “In some sense, there’s an institutional victory here, which is the president said jump, and we didn’t jump,” Massie said.
Massie and Trump have a bit of a history. In 2020, the congressman, nicknamed “Mr. No, voted against emergency pandemic relief, prompting Trump to call him a “third rate Grandstander.” Regardless, Trump endorsed Massie in the next election cycle.
