Donald Trump suffered a humiliating setback on Thursday when Republicans in Congress failed to pass a cut spending bill – just a day before a possible government shutdown that could hit holiday travel.

By a vote of 174-235, the House rejected the Trump-backed package, which was hastily put together by Republican leaders after the president-elect and his billionaire ally Elon Musk scuttled a previous bipartisan agreement.

Critics described the collapse as a first taste of the chaos to come when Trump returns to the White House on January 20. Musk’s intervention via a barrage of tweets on his social media platform X was derided by Democrats as the work of “President Musk.”

“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters. “It’s ridiculous. Extreme MAGA Republicans are pushing us toward a government shutdown.”

Despite Trump’s support, 38 Republicans and nearly all Democrats voted against the new package, ensuring it failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage and leaving next steps uncertain.

The resistance within Trump’s own party surprised many.

The latest bill would have extended federal funding into March, when Trump will be in the White House and Republicans will control both chambers of Congress. It would also have provided $100 billion in disaster relief and suspended debt. Republicans dropped other elements included in the original package, such as a pay raise for members of Congress and new rules for pharmacy benefit managers.

At Trump’s urging, the new version would also have suspended federal debt caps for two years – a move that would make it easier to pass the dramatic tax cuts he promised and set the stage for the federal government’s debt to rise of 36 trillion US dollars continue to climb.

Before the vote, Democrats and Republicans warned that the other party would be to blame if Congress allowed the government to shut down.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that the package would avoid disruption, resolve outstanding issues and make it easier for Congress to cut spending by hundreds of billions of dollars when Trump takes office next year. “The government is too big, it does too many things and it only does a few things well,” he said.

But Democrats rejected the bill as a cover for a budget-busting tax cut that would primarily benefit wealthy backers like Musk, the world’s richest man, while burdening the country with trillions of dollars in additional debt.

Jeffries said during the floor debate: “How dare you ever lecture America about fiscal responsibility?”

Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman, told reporters: “So who should our leader Hakeem Jeffries negotiate with? Is it Mike Johnson? Is he the Speaker of the House of Representatives? Or is it Donald Trump? Or is it Elon Musk? Or is it someone else?”

Some Republicans objected that the bill would pave the way for more debt without reducing spending. Congressman Chip Roy said: “I am absolutely disgusted by the party that advocates for fiscal responsibility.”

Even if the bill had passed in the House, it would have faced major opposition in the Senate, which is currently controlled by Democrats. The White House said Joe Biden opposed the package, adding: “Republicans are obeying the wishes of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hard-working Americans.”

Previous disputes over the debt ceiling have unsettled financial markets as a U.S. government default would trigger credit shocks around the world. The cap was suspended under an agreement that technically expires Jan. 1, although Congress likely won’t have to address the issue until the spring.

The unrest also threatens to topple Johnson, who was unexpectedly thrust into the speakership last year after the party’s right flank voted out then-speaker Kevin McCarthy over a government funding bill. Johnson has had to repeatedly turn to Democrats for help passing legislation when he has been unable to deliver his own party’s votes. On Thursday he tried the same maneuver but failed.

Several Republicans said they would not vote for Johnson as speaker when Congress returns in January, potentially setting up another turbulent leadership battle in the weeks before Trump takes office.

The state funding expires on Friday at midnight. If Congress does not extend that deadline, the U.S. government will begin a partial shutdown that would cut off funding for everything from border surveillance to national parks and cut paychecks for more than two million federal workers.

The US Transportation Security Administration has warned that travelers should expect long lines at airports during the busy holiday season.