Republicans broke with Donald Trump. Now primary threats could be in the offing.

Dozens of House Republicans voted against a bill pushed by the president-elect to temporarily fund the government Thursday night, even after Trump promised retribution to those who crossed him.

The list of 38 Republicans opposed to the measure ranged from conservatives called out by name by the president-elect — like Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) — to less visible agitators like Republican Reps. Aaron Bean (Fla.), Russ Fulcher (Idaho) and Wesley Hunt (Texas).

“I’m happy to take the fire,” Roy told POLITICO Thursday evening. “I understand why the president wants the debt ceiling off the table, I support him. But I don’t support doing it for the sake of doing it, without structural spending reforms.”

The two men spoke before Trump launched his broadside on Truth Social against the Texas conservative on Thursday, according to two people familiar with the talk, granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation. Other conservatives minimized the primary threat, given their seats are comfortably Republican and often support incumbents by wide margins.

“It’s real for some people, but Chip Roy can survive it. I can survive it,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). “It’ll move the needle 20 points in a race. But if you were going to win 80-20 percent you can be okay.”

Trump has largely been successful driving his intra-party rivals from the party — most of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach him are no longer serving — but not always. Trump previously looked to boot Massie, but he survived easily.

And Republicans are hoping there is strength in numbers. Most of the Republicans who opposed are housed in the House Freedom Caucus or are adjacent, often meaning they are in safe GOP districts. Still, Trump is powerful with the base and he could create real challenges for some.

In the end, the government funding measure fell way short of becoming law, especially given it was considered under suspension of the rules, an expedited process for consideration requiring two-thirds support. It included a two-year suspension of the nation’s borrowing limit in addition to a short term government funding patch.

Here’s what we’re watching in transition world today:

🗓️ What we’re watching

• House Republican leaders planned to work through Thursday night and into Friday on a Plan C for funding the government, after abandoning their deal with Democrats and failing to pass an alternative backed by President-elect Donald Trump. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Speaker Mike Johnson to return to the original deal.
• Trump is insistent that any deal eliminate the debt limit altogether, or at least punt it until after his presidency. 
• Johnson and Trump are weighing the pros and cons of a shutdown. 
• The blame game for a potential shutdown is already starting, with Vice President-elect JD Vance telling reporters Thursday that Democrats “asked for a shutdown, and I think that’s exactly what they’re going to get.”
• Elon Musk’s involvement in the unraveling of the funding bill raised questions about whether he was simply getting a head start on his cost-cutting duties as the leader of the so-called Department of Governmental Efficiency with the blessing of Trump — or freelancing. If there were any hurt feelings between Trump and Musk, it was not apparent in the immediate aftermath.
• The collapse of Congress’ spending negotiations is throwing the presidential transition and preparations for Trump’s second inauguration into chaos as Washington stares down the prospect of a government shutdown just after midnight Friday.

🚨What’s up with the nominees?

• Senate Republicans have launched a new caucus to support Health and Human Services pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda. 
• Trump’s previous pick for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, is plotting revenge for the when the House Ethics report about him is made public.
• Members of the Trump transition arrived at the Energy Department on Tuesday to meet for the first time with department leaders.

House Republican leaders planned to work through the night and into Friday on a Plan C for funding the government, after abandoning their deal with Democrats and failing to pass an alternative backed by President-elect Donald Trump.

Facing a government shutdown deadline at midnight Friday, Speaker Mike Johnson is under pressure to patch together a third proposal to avert a shutdown — while enacting other priorities that include more than $100 billion in disaster aid, retaining support from Trump along with a majority of House Republicans and enough Democrats to secure passage.

After last-minute objections from Trump and Elon Musk, Johnson is now forced to balance those conflicting interests ahead of a January vote to secure his speakership.

“We will regroup, and we will come up with another solution. So stay tuned,” Johnson said after the resounding defeat of his second attempt at a spending patch.

Asked while leaving the Capitol late Thursday evening if another bill would come up Friday, Johnson replied: “We’ll see.”

Lawmakers who opposed the funding measure have reached out to the Speaker’s office to find out the plan, gauge what options would be considered, and find a path forward, according to a Republican with knowledge of the matter. They were not taken up on their offers.

Centrist Republicans and some other GOP lawmakers are pushing for a vote on a stopgap funding measure that does not deliver on Trump’s wish to lift the debt limit. They argue that Democrats would support such an effort, coupled with an extension of “farm bill” policies and the $110 billion disaster aid package as negotiated under the initial bipartisan deal leaders rolled out earlier in the week.

“We’re going to work through the night to figure out a plan moving forward,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said Thursday night, heading into Johnson’s office after the failed vote on the Trump-backed plan.

Cammack said Republicans “still have options,” adding that disaster aid is a dealbreaker for Floridians and “every single state, every district that has been impacted by weather-related issues.”

Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters Thursday night that leaders won’t try to pass the same Trump-endorsed bill again under a simple majority. The overwhelming defeat of the bill quashed Republican hopes of passing the measure under a lower bar than the two-thirds threshold used to fast-track action and avoid conservative opposition to an initial procedural vote.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Republican leaders “should go back to the original” bipartisan agreement if they don’t include language to waive the debt limit in the next attempt.

“It was negotiated by so many people,” Bacon said of the initial accord that included changes to agriculture policy, rules for pharmacy benefits managers and consumer protections like forcing airlines to disclose more information on flight tickets. “We had good things in there.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a Johnson critic who sits on the Rules panel, is urging leadership to break up the package and vote separately on a stopgap funding bill, raising the debt limit, disaster relief and farm assistance.

“This isn’t complicated. Separate the bills and vote on them individually,” he posted on social media Thursday night.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who served as Interior secretary during the first Trump administration, told POLITICO that he is offering “caution” to Republicans who opposed the new stopgap, telling them that Trump “is the quarterback” and “he called a play.”

Zinke huddled on the floor with Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), a Republican who voted against the plan.

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) said lawmakers need to focus on proposals that can attract 218 votes of support in the House and 60 votes in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

“At some point, let’s just put on our big boy, big girl pants,” said the South Dakotan. “Ideas that don’t move us in that direction are not helpful.”

Democrats will also be assessing what’s next, with a caucus meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Republicans haven’t approached her about negotiating a bipartisan solution.

“Let’s go. Let’s get it done. Just 24 hours ago we were there. Just go back to the original deal,” DeLauro said after the failed vote.

In the Senate, Republicans are waiting to see what the fractured House can produce. “I don’t know what the plan is now,” incoming Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Thursday night.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Daniella Diaz, Olivia Beavers, Ursula Perano and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report. 

A bill to avert a government shutdown failed on the House floor Thursday night, after Democrats and conservatives rebelled against Speaker Mike Johnson’s new Donald Trump-backed spending plan.

The measure went down decisively, 174-235, failing to meet a two-thirds bar for passage under a fast-track procedure, as 38 Republicans joined 197 Democrats to tank the bill. Two Democrats voted for the bill, and one voted present.

With government funding set to expire at midnight Friday, Elon Musk and Trump lured Congress into a power struggle, demanding that Johnson abandon the bipartisan accord he struck with top Democrats this week and instead craft a bill favored by Republicans. By defeating that Trump-backed alternative, Democrats demonstrated that they won’t help him pass bills if they don’t have a seat at the negotiating table.

“A deal’s a deal,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the House’s top Democratic appropriator, said on the floor before the vote.

“Yesterday a multi-billionaire, with apparently no working knowledge of government or of appropriations — a self-appointed president of the United States, Elon Musk — issued a marching order for House Republicans to go against their own elected leadership and shut down the government,” DeLauro said. “Soon after, Congress was on a fast track to a government shutdown.”

GOP leaders could now try to pass the bill with a simple majority. But they would need almost every Republican to vote in support of teeing up debate, then for passage — a feat they have continually failed to pull off over the last two years as conservative lawmakers block party leaders from passing funding bills under a simple majority.

The package — which includes funding the government through March 14, suspending the debt ceiling until early 2027 and disaster relief, among a few other priorities — was hastily assembled Thursday afternoon after Trump and Musk urged Republicans to spike the previous package.

Top Republicans argue that Democrats should support the bill on its merits, since it contains much of what they already agreed to, despite Johnson’s backtracking on the initial bipartisan accord.

“This keeps the government open. What my friends want to do by voting no is to effectively shut it down,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said on the floor.

The second-attempt spending and disaster package was assembled without input from Democrats, who fumed about Republicans stripping out dozens of bills they want to clear in the final days of the current session of Congress, from measures on pricing transparency for hotel reservations to support for the semiconductor supply chain.

Thursday night’s failed vote follows two days of chaos and House Republican infighting about the stopgap spending agreement brokered by Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — drama that began even before Musk and Trump weighed in with demands, including that the bill waive the U.S. debt limit as the nation surpasses $36 trillion in debt.

Johnson tried to shore up support within his own conference for the original stopgap, which many complained was burdened with additional spending and policy bills. But Musk stoked outrage against the bill online, and Trump landed the killing blow on Wednesday.

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

The shutdown blame game has already begun on Capitol Hill, a telltale sign that lawmakers don’t expect they can clear a funding plan before the Friday night deadline.

Republicans’ revamped attempt at a stopgap spending bill is headed to the House floor Thursday evening but it’s almost certainly doomed, given it needs to meet a two-thirds threshold to pass the chamber and Democrats have vocally opposed it.

Democrats have already dubbed it the Elon Musk shutdown, given the billionaire publicly excoriated the original bipartisan spending deal and helped tank it on Wednesday. And Republicans are coming out swinging against Democrats after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged his fellow Democrats to vote against the new, hastily assembled package.

“If the government shuts down because Hakeem Jeffries tells his people not to vote for it, the Democrat party in the House of Representatives will be directly responsible for shutting the government down and destroying American agriculture. Period,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said Thursday afternoon.

Republicans — trying to placate Donald Trump, who had also denounced the previous funding deal for being too kind to Democrats — had worked out the funding deal among their own party and did not involve Democrats. But GOP lawmakers argued that the bill, which still included more than $100 billion in disaster aid, didn’t include provisions that were objectionable to Democrats, and took into account bipartisan negotiations on the previous version.

“It’s interesting that Democrats are now saying that they don’t want a government shutdown. Yet they’re going to vote against it, and a lot of it was already negotiated with Democrats,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).

Democrats are fuming at Republicans for throwing out a bipartisan agreement that took weeks to negotiate, instead working out a new deal only within their own party and ignoring the reality that Democrats control the Senate and the White House for another month. And many of them are blaming Musk, as well as the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that he will lead next year.

“Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep government open,” wrote former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on social media Thursday evening. “House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and siding with billionaires and special interests.”

It’s a long-running tradition in Washington to blame the other party for shutting down the government. But it’s a terrible sign for anyone hoping to actually avoid the shutdown, signaling that lawmakers are at a standoff and aren’t confident they can come to a deal before the deadline on Friday at midnight. Democrats keep calling on Republicans to return to the previous deal, while Republicans are planning another go at their own agreement if and when it fails Thursday evening.

In a divided Congress, one month before a presidential transition and less than a week before Christmas, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

“I think what Republicans are trying to do here is clearly tee this up and make it easier for reconciliation next year, but to put this on at this point without consulting us or talking to us is just pretty unfortunate. We had a deal, it was a bipartisan deal, it’s a four corners deal, they should honor the deal,” said Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.).

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, is also ready to place blame on the GOP, already labeling anticipated mass furloughs of their members the “DOGE shutdown.” And Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, unleashed on the House floor ahead of the vote on the reworked spending bill.

“House Republicans are responsible for any harm and uncertainty brought upon the American people and should some get their wish for a month-long government shutdown,” she said.

Daniella Diaz, Hailey Fuchs and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

House Democrats were skeptical of an emerging Republican-led funding deal as they walked into a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday afternoon, meaning it’s almost certainly doomed on the House floor, with less than 36 hours to go until a shutdown deadline.

“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It’s laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said to reporters as he walked into the meeting.

Speaking privately to members of his caucus minutes later, Jeffries told lawmakers: “I’m not simply a no. I’m a hell no,” according to three people familiar with his remarks, granted anonymity to speak about the meeting.

Other Democratic lawmakers also expressed doubts about the legislation, which Republican leaders were teeing up for a vote Thursday evening. It would suspend the debt ceiling through early 2027, fund the government through March, and include billions in disaster relief funds, a top Democratic priority.

The vote on the bill is scheduled to come up via a process called suspension, which means it needs to meet a two-thirds vote threshold to pass. If Democrats are roundly against it, it will fail on the floor — leaving Congress without an obvious solution to avoid a shutdown.

“This was done on short notice,” said Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, who said he was opposed. “We reached an agreement on a bipartisan basis between the respective leadership and the membership of both parties, only to have an interruption take place and then a veto occurs after the agreement has been rendered and reached.”

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk worked to spike the original deal on Wednesday, sending the House careening down an alternate path with a deadline looming.

“Elon Musk is not my constituent. My constituents are hard-working people who work very hard every day for every dime they have, and I’m sure as hell not bailing out on them in the final week,” said Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition.

Top Democrats weren’t involved in the drafting of the legislation, and the unveiling caught senior lawmakers by surprise.

“All I know is it was just reported by the press. We have not been involved in anything that they have done,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Appropriations Committee Democrat.

Republicans argue the burden is now on Democrats to justify any opposition to a continuing resolution — “CR” for short — that averts a government shutdown and also prevents the U.S. from defaulting on its more than $36 trillion in debt next year.

“Fundamentally, Democrats are going to have to explain why a clean CR with disaster relief, keeping the government functioning and open — and doing, by the way, exactly what they argued a year ago — why they wouldn’t support that,” Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) said as he left Johnson’s office Thursday afternoon.

Those policies are typically something Democrats would support, GOP lawmakers note, without acknowledging that backing the plan threatens Democrats’ negotiating power going forward.

Olivia Beavers, Jordain Carney and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.