Trump urges Republicans to scupper budget deal, risking govt shutdown

US President-elect Donald Trump has urged Republican lawmakers to scupper a cross-party deal to avert a fast-looming US government shutdown, as the White House accused him of "playing politics."

Staring down a Friday night deadline to fund federal agencies, party leaders in Congress had agreed on a "continuing resolution" (CR) to keep the lights on until mid-March and avoid having to send public workers home without pay over Christmas.

But the compromise was pilloried by numerous Republicans on Wednesday — most notably tech billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump has charged with slashing government spending in his second term.

Trump holds huge sway over Republicans, and his intervention makes it almost certain that the bill will fail.

Suggesting that concessions to Democrats in the text were "a betrayal of our country," Trump called in a joint statement with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance for Republicans to "GET SMART and TOUGH."

Trump and Vance said they would be against any package that does not include an extension to the federal borrowing limit, which the country is on track to hit just as Republicans take total control of Congress in January.

The current federal debt is $36.2 trillion and Congress has raised the limit more than 100 times to allow the government to meet its spending commitments. The next extension was not part of the shutdown negotiations and the demand took lawmakers by surprise.

The bill includes more than $100 billion in disaster relief requested by the White House, $30 billion in aid for farmers, restrictions on investment in China and the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.

But the add-ons to the package sparked a rebellion in Republican ranks, meaning the leadership would have been forced to lean on Democratic votes — a tactic that got the previous House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, axed by his own side.

'Instability across the country'

The White House said instability might stir in the country if the bill fails.

"Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement, or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

"President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance ordered Republicans to shut down the government, and they are threatening to do just that."

A CR is required because neither chamber has been able to agree on the various departmental budgets for the full 2025 fiscal year, which started on October 1.

Government departments and services, from national parks to border control, will begin shuttering on Saturday unless an agreement is reached.

Dozens of Republicans in the House — where they have a razor-thin majority and can only lose three members in partisan votes — look set to oppose the bill if it survives Trump's intervention.

Rank-and-file Republicans typically object to temporary funding agreements because they keep spending levels static rather than introducing cuts and are invariably stuffed with "pork" — extra spending shoehorned in without proper debate.

A five-week shutdown from 2018 to 2019 shrank the economy by about $3 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.