In a move that has stunned Washington, President-elect Donald Trump is now urging Congress to lift the debt ceiling, dramatically upsetting talks among lawmakers doing so in a dead end on federal spending and state funding set to expire this weekend.

While some on Capitol Hill bristled at Trump’s latest demand, the president-elect appeared unwavering on Thursday. He said he was committed to sticking to his position that lawmakers should both reject any sweeping spending measure that includes Democratic “traps” and eliminate the debt limit before he takes office next year.

“First, the debt ceiling should be eliminated entirely,” Trump said in a telephone interview. “Secondly, a lot of the different things that they thought they were going to get (in a recently proposed spending deal) are now 100% discarded. And we’ll see what happens. We’ll see whether or not we have a shutdown during the Biden administration, but if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen during Biden, not during Trump.”

Trump’s comments, which sent negotiators from both parties back to the drawing board ahead of the federal funding expiration at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, came a day after he called a bipartisan spending deal “ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive” and said it would not If the case were to be made, legislation to expand federal funding should also include plans to “terminate or extend” the debt limit.

Still, Trump, who built a decades-long business career as a negotiator and dealmaker, appeared to leave room for House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republicans to build consensus on new options that he deemed sufficient.

Asked how he would like this standoff to end, Trump replied: “It will end in many ways, that would be very good.”

Trump said discussions were ongoing and it was too early for him to provide further details on the contours of a final agreement.

“We’ll see,” Trump said. “It’s too early.”

But Trump said he would continue to closely monitor how Democrats might try to influence a revised agreement, expressing displeasure that the original bipartisan agreement contained Democratic provisions.

“We caught them trying to lay traps. And I wasn’t going to let that happen,” he said. “There will be no traps of the radical left and crazy Democrats.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a billionaire who spent nearly $300 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates in the November election, also against it the original bipartisan spending deal, which he called “terrible.” When Johnson rejected it, Musk wrote on X: “The voice of the people has prevailed!”

Trump’s focus on the debt ceiling, which limits the federal government’s borrowing authority, comes as he faces a showdown on the issue in the first year of his upcoming term. Several people close to Trump say the prospect has caught his attention because he wants to devote his time and political capital to other issues next year and would prefer Congress address it now.

While the current federal borrowing cap is suspended until Jan. 1, 2025, the Treasury Department could take steps to avoid a default for several months into next year. Still, the government could face an economically difficult default sometime early next year if the debt ceiling is not extended or addressed by Congress.

Asked Thursday about Trump’s call to address the debt limit, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said, “The question and discussion about the debt limit is premature at best.”