GOP senators disavow Trump on debt ceiling, signaling growing rift

Published

2 years ago

May 12, 2023

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Senate Republicans are disavowing former President Trump’s call to let the federal government default on its debts unless President Biden agrees to “massive” spending cuts, dismissing Trump’s suggestion as something far too risky to seriously consider.

The cold reception to Trump’s bold statement is the latest sign of the widening rift between Trump and his party’s Washington establishment.

While Trump maintains strong influence in the House, where he helped Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) nail down enough votes to be elected Speaker, it’s a different story in the Senate.

GOP senators largely ignored Trump’s participation in a CNN’s town hall Wednesday and later dismissed the former president’s claim that failing to raise the debt ceiling by next month’s deadline might not be a big deal.

“I don’t think anybody suggesting that ‘we have to do a default’ is wise policy, wise strategy for this country,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), adding that Trump “certainly doesn’t impact” her view.

She argued it would be far more productive to encourage Biden and McCarthy to work together to reach a compromise rather than pushing a default as a viable option.

“Right now, the talks are going on with the top four and of course the White House, and now the staffs. What we want to do is encourage that every step of the way,” she said.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said “most people recognize we need to strike a deal here” and predicted that Trump’s impacts won’t get much traction among GOP lawmakers.

“I don’t think we want to go there with the potential consequences,” he said of a potential default.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership team, said: “Nobody thinks default is a good idea. Nobody.”

McCarthy on Thursday distanced himself from Trump’s comments.

“The only thing I see right now is that the Republicans made sure default is not on the table. We’ve raised the debt limit,” he said, referring to the bill House Republicans passed last month to raise the debt ceiling to $1.5 trillion and cut spending by $4.8 trillion.

“The only person talking about default right now is President Biden. His actions, he’s ignored this problem, just like he’s ignored the border, that means more Americans are gonna die from fentanyl. You had 11,000 people just yesterday come across,” he said.

Those are much different tones than the one Trump struck at the CNN town hall, where he declared: “I say to the Republicans out there — congressmen, senators — if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re gonna have to default.”

He went on to say that a federal default might not have as big an impact on the U.S. economy as experts predict.

Trump said the consequences of failing to extend the debt limit by the deadline “could be maybe nothing” or result in only “a bad week or a bad day.”

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), when asked about Trump’s comments, said: “Yeah, well, we can’t do a default but we should find a way to reach a compromise. That’s what you expect a president to do.”

Romney said Trump is rooting for a default because it’s in his political interests.

“If there were a default, the one person who might be tempted to celebrate politically would be Donald Trump, because he’d say, ‘If I were president, this would have never happened,’” he said.

Romney said Trump’s CNN town hall appearance showed a person “untethered to the truth and untethered to the constitutional order.”

He also criticized Trump for saying he would pardon the people who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and for not expressing support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

“A crime is a crime. I believe in juries, and people who’ve been convicted of a crime ought to pay the penalty that the jury or the court imposed and [that] they agreed to, in some cases,” Romney said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he wasn’t that surprised that Trump advised Republicans to let the nation default.

“It doesn’t surprise me he’d say that,” Cassidy said. “The president is a candidate trying to run on a very populist base, and I think he feels like that will position him in place he gets more votes, and I think he’ll say whatever he needs to, to get more votes.”

Cassidy said he wasn’t sure how it would influence Trump’s allies in the House.

“I don’t have their temperature,” he said.

A Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment candidly on Trump said senators would ignore the advice.

“I don’t know about the House, but I don’t think there are a lot of senators who wait for his instructions,” the lawmaker said.

But the senator expressed uncertainty whether Trump might push House conservatives to take a harder line in the talks.

“I don’t know,” the senator said. “We need to be working together.”

House Republicans mostly dodged Trump’s call to let the nation default if Democrats refuse to agree to massive cuts, but they were less critical of Trump’s comments than some of their Senate Republican colleagues.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, said a default is what House Republicans are trying to avoid.

“Obviously, if there’s not a deal, then there’s default. That’s what we’re all trying to prevent,” he said.

He downplayed Trump’s influence by noting, “obviously, he’s not part of this negotiation.” Tesla recalls more than 1 million vehicles in China Flesh-eating ‘zombie drug’ saturating Los Angeles streets, officials say

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) said he views Trump’s willingness to let the nation default as campaign rhetoric.

“I forget who said it, but you know, you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. … Candidates talk about things differently than people who are trying to get to a deal,” he said, referring to the political maxim made famous by late New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

Mychael Schnell and Emily Brooks contributed.

World

US-Saudi relationship feels tighter than ever as Trump signs flurry of deals

Published

2 hours ago

May 13, 2025

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US-Saudi relationship feels tighter than ever as Trump signs flurry of deals

In today’s Saudi Arabia, convention centres resemble palaces.

The King Abdul Aziz International Conference Centre was built in 1999 but inside it feels like Versailles.

Some might call it kitsch, but it’s a startling reflection of how far this country has come – the growth of a nation from desert bedouins to a vastly wealthy regional powerbroker in just one generation.

Trump latest: President signs huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia

At a bar overnight, over mocktails and a shisha, I listened to one young Saudi man tell me how his family had watched this transformation.

His father, now in his 60s, had lived the change – a child born in a desert tent, an upbringing in a dusty town, his 30s as a mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, his 40s in a deeply conservative Riyadh and now his 60s watching, wide-eyed, the change supercharged in recent years.

The last few years’ acceleration of change is best reflected in the social transformation. Women, unveiled, can now drive. Here, make no mistake, that’s a profound leap forward.

Through a ‘western’ lens, there’s a way to go – homosexuality is illegal here. That, and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, are no longer openly discussed here.

Bluntly, political and economic expedience have moved world leaders and business leaders beyond all that.

The guest list of delegates at the convention centre for the Saudi-US Investment Forum reads like a who’s who of America’s best business brains.

Signing a flurry of different deals worth about $600bn (£451bn) of inward investment from Saudi to the US – which actually only represent intentions or ‘memorandums of understanding’ at this stage – the White House said: “The deals… represent a new golden era of partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

“From day one, President Trump‘s America First Trade and Investment Policy has put the American economy, the American worker, and our national security first.”

That’s the answer when curious voters in faraway America wonder what this is all about.

With opulence and extravagance, this is about a two-way investment and opportunity.

There are defence deals – the largest defence sales agreement in history, at nearly $142bn (£106bn) – tech deals, and energy deals.

Underlying it all is the expectation of diplomatic cooperation, investment to further the geopolitical strategies for both countries on key global challenges.

In the convention centre’s gold-clad corridors, outside the plenary hall, there are reminders of the history of this relationship.

There is a ‘gallery of memories’ – the American presidents with the Saudi kings – stretching back to the historic 1945 meeting between Franklin D Roosevelt and King Saud on board the USS Quincy. That laid the foundation for the relationship we now see.

Curiously, the only president missing is Barack Obama. Sources suggested to me that this was a ‘mistake’. A convenient one, maybe.

It’s no secret that the US-Saudi relationship was at its most strained during his presidency. Obama’s absence would give Trump a chuckle.

Today, the relationship feels tighter than ever. There is a mutual respect between the president and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – Trump chose Saudi Arabia as his first foreign trip in his last presidency, and he’s done so again.

But there are differences this time. Both men are more powerful, more self-assured, and of course the region has changed.

There are huge challenges like Gaza, but the two men see big opportunities too. A deal with Iran, a new Syria, and Gulf countries that are global players.

It’s money, money, money here in Riyadh. Will that translate to a better, more prosperous and peaceful world? That’s the question.

US