Trump wants to push through a new budget proposal

After his latest blockade maneuver in the US budget dispute, President-elect Donald Trump wants to push through a new draft for a transition budget in Parliament. Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform, which he co-founded, that there was a new plan that could avert a partial shutdown of government business. The Republican spoke of a “very good” agreement and called on both parties in Congress to pass the draft immediately and thus avoid a “shutdown”.

In order to prevent a partial standstill of government business on Saturday night (local time), the US Parliament would have to pass a legal text by Friday – and President Joe Biden, who is still in office, would have to sign it. If that doesn’t happen, state institutions would have to partially stop working and many state employees would not be paid for the time being.

Blockade maneuvers by Trump and Musk

Trump, who will not be sworn in as president until January, torpedoed the passage of a transition budget in Congress shortly before the deadline – seconded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is supposed to help Trump cut government spending and is a close confidant of the Republican. The two’s blockade maneuver is also a demonstration of the balance of power in the Republican Party.

The future president had openly asked all his Republican representatives not to agree to a comprehensive legal text that had already been negotiated with the Democrats. This raised the danger of a “shutdown” in the first place and plunged Parliament into major turbulence shortly before the Christmas break.

The Republicans now presented a significantly slimmed down legal text, which, however, met with great resistance from the Democrats. The Democratic minority leader in the US House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, called the new draft “laughable” and complained that extreme forces in the Republican Party were about to trigger a “government shutdown”.