| Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has led the House into holiday hell, plunging Congress extremely close to a partial government shutdown, which is set to start tonight at midnight. President-elect Donald Trump’s explosive last-minute strategy (if you can call it that) of demanding an increase to the country’s borrowing limit, also known as the debt limit, to the stopgap government funding bill has helped to sow the chaos. Thursday evening, the House rejected a Trump-endorsed plan to keep the government from shutting down this weekend. While the proposal was on shaky ground before voting even began — Democrats in the closely divided chamber signaled strong opposition — the final vote included 38 Republicans who opposed it, ignoring Trump’s last-minute attempt to bend the House GOP to his will. The fracas showed how even as Trump wields significant influence in his party on the verge of his second term, some things do not — and may not — change. House Republicans will continue to have a razor-thin majority in the next Congress, with a small but influential faction of fiscal hawks that are fed up with the same old funding fights, even if Trump leans on them. “Does it weigh on my mind? Sure it does. But ultimately, I got to deal with what I feel is right,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) said of pressure from Trump. Trump sought to send a warning shot to wavering House Republicans hours before the vote, singling out Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) in a pair of social media posts. Trump accused Roy of obstructing “another Great Republican Victory” and called for him to face primary opposition. But Roy only dug in. He said on X that he made “no apologies” for his position and then went on conservative radio and tore into the emerging Trump-backed agreement as a “bad deal.” On the House floor, Roy called it “asinine” for Republicans to be celebrating how many fewer pages the new bill was when it still added $5 trillion to the national debt. Among those who had been touting the page count: Trump’s political team. While Trump’s wrath can no doubt make life hard in a primary for a House Republican, there have also been times when he has proven to be more bark than bite. The last time he clashed with Roy — just over a year ago to the day — he called for primary challengers to Roy despite the fact that the candidate filing deadline had already passed in Texas and Roy was unopposed. The debt limit trap One major reason 38 Republicans opposed the bill is because of the last-minute insertion to lift the debt limit. It’s a congressional requirement that is usually necessary every couple of years, but one that no Republican likes to do and many refuse to vote for. Trump had been asking Johnson to lift the debt ceiling before he takes office, two House GOP sources familiar with the request said. But one of the sources said Johnson had been reluctant because he said he doesn’t have the votes, we report with our colleague Marianna Sotomayor. Lifting the debt limit is often the result of protracted, bitter negotiations between the two parties where Republicans in exchange demand steep spending cuts. Democrats are often willing to raise it, but refused last night after Johnson walked out on their bipartisan deal minutes before the vote was supposed to take place Wednesday night. Johnson put it on the floor as part of billions of dollars of additional spending for farmers and disaster relief. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) said that the spending cuts will happen when Trump is president, echoing Trump’s social media post vowing spending cuts next year when he’s president. “We're going to be doing a lot in the New Year to streamline government,” Scalise said. Most Republicans, all but 38, were persuaded by that — far fewer than the 70 Republicans that voted against lifting the debt limit last year. One of those who voted against it last year but supported it last night was Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana). “I have no objection” to lifting the debt limit “as long as we can cut spending, which we will do in reconciliation in two phases in just a few months,” he said, adding that farmers in his district needed the aid, too. But Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Florida), who doesn’t support lifting the debt limit, was torn, providing some unintended drama as the last lawmaker to cast a vote, our colleague Paul Kane notes. The official clock had run out so Cammack, who lost a bid for a junior leadership post last month, filled out two paper cards because electronic voting no longer works at that point. She placed a red card (“nay”) and green card (“yea”) on the staff table where clerks waited for her to indicate which way she’d go. She twirled the cards around on the dais, looking down, looking up at the staff. Finally, she slid the red card to the staff, the 38th Republican to vote against Johnson and Trump. Afterward, she told reporters that a “constitutional conservative” could not countenance a two-year hike in the debt limit without any meaningful cuts, saying that was a red line for dozens of those voting no. “A lot of them felt that same way,” she said. The overall episode does not bode well for the 119th Congress, but some House Republicans were trying to stay upbeat Thursday evening when asked about the implications for the next two years. “It’s going to be awesome,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin) told reporters. “You know why it’s going to be awesome? Because now we know how to work together.” | 
Patrick Svitek and 
