Even though he doesn’t become president for another month, Donald Trump is already making ridiculous demands of Congress that he seems to believe have validity.
Trump has even decided to insert himself into the process of passing a federal budget to avoid a government shutdown before funding expires on Friday, just days before Christmas.
Specifically, Trump is insisting that an increase in the debt ceiling be included in the bipartisan package that has been making its way through the House of Representatives, The Hill reports.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appeared caught off guard Wednesday as President-elect Trump demanded that a debt ceiling hike be paired with a stopgap government funding bill, rejecting a sweeping bipartisan plan to avert a government shutdown this week.
Trump said in a joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance that while the party wants disaster aid and support for farmers — issues that are tackled in the temporary funding plan — he wants Congress to pass a “streamlined spending bill” that doesn’t give Democrats “everything they want” and has “an increase in the debt ceiling.”
Trump’s demands didn’t sit well with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner, “This quote unquote ‘mandate’ that MAGA thinks exists, it ain’t going nowhere because they literally can’t do the basics. We have passed the least amount of bills in this Congress because of the Republicans.”
“Listen, I ain’t got no favors for you, Trump. When you get here then yes, you will have the House, the Senate as well as the White House and y’all can see if y’all can figure it out. But right now, I am not trying to shut down this government…” Crockett added, making it clear she has no plans to take marching orders from a rapist president-elect who thinks he can issue edicts via social media.
