‘Absolute Mayhem’: Recent Spending Fight Just Preview of Chaos to Come
Expectations of a powerful Trump presidency may have been a mirage
The recent debacle of Republican infighting over funding the federal government was just a taste of things to come over the next couple of years.
That’s the prediction of journalists, elected officials, and political analysts.
Donald Trump and his billionaire advisor, Elon Musk, last week nearly derailed a bipartisan effort to approve funding for the federal government.
Musk began demanding that Republicans kill the bill, threatening lawmakers with future primary opponents if they didn’t obey.
In the end, Republicans joined with Democrats in the House and avoided a government shutdown only at the last minute.
Americans likely can expect more of the same to come, many observers said.
“This is exactly the sort of thing that has been going on with issue after issue. Remember the border bill that they were working toward with the bipartisan compromise and Trump stepped in and the whole thing developed into chaos. We should not be surprised that this is happening,” said Dana Milbank, an author and columnist for The Washington Post. “I am a little surprised that Trump chaos has begun even before he takes office but this is sort of a preview of coming attractions because if you thought the house was ungovernable for the last two years as it was with the majority between three and five, now we are down, as you pointed out at least in the beginning, to essentially a majority of one.
“You have 38 people defying Trump in the Republican caucus in the House. It is only going to take one to deny Mike Johnson the speakership or to deny Donald Trump his tax cuts. I think I can go out on a limb and say it is going to be absolute mayhem in the House of Representatives for the next couple of years,” Milbank added.
Expectations of a powerful Republican majority muscling through Trump’s far-right agenda may have been unfounded, according to Jonathan Lemire, Washington bureau chief at Politico and a host on MSNBC.
“Now there had been an expectation there was a GOP juggernaut in Washington after the election. Republicans controlling the house and Senate, though by narrow margins, and Donald Trump running, for him, a reasonably well-disciplined and organized presidential campaign. But we saw this week the second term, well, sure looks like it’s going to be Trump’s first term: full of chaos and tumult where he blew up a deal, undermined Speaker [Mike] Johnson, a fellow Republican, and a bipartisan agreement to keep the government open, and he did so at the 11th hour with a significant assist from Elon Musk, the billionaire who can now only be described as Trump’s top adviser, and they inserted themselves in the process really late and left the Congress scrambling. And then we saw Republicans, 38 of them, defy Trump in what he wanted for a second deal, revised deal.
“Now this did all get done, as you noted. There was some compromise reached, some Democrats willing to cross the aisle, cast their votes to keep the government open, but I think this is what next year is going to look like on Capitol Hill,” Lemire added.
Fingers point to the outsize influence of Musk.
“If we are going to give up the authority that is invested in us throughout constitution to an unelected person who has selfish motives, then the country is not going to run well and I think we saw that when we saw this attempt to scuttle what had been a bipartisan bill agreed to by all the elected officials and an unelected person injects himself into the process and there goes out the window that bipartisan bill,” said Rep Jim Clyburn (D-SC). “Thankfully, 24 hours later, we brought it back together. But if that’s what we are going to have during the Trump administration, I think the people of America are going to be sorely disappointed with the direction of the country.”
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