Senate Democrats labeled billionaire Elon Musk ‘co-president’ and ‘shadow speaker’ among other titles as they reacted to the original stopgap spending deal’s implosion on Wednesday after he and ultimately President-elect Trump came out against it. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Musk ‘seems to be the guy in charge of the country now,’ reacting to his apparent ability to influence the bill’s prompt failure despite it having been agreed upon by bipartisan leaders in Congress. 

If a measure to provide funding for the government is not passed by Congress and signed by President Biden by midnight on Saturday morning, a partial government shutdown will go into effect. 

As of Thursday, the U.S. national debt was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and continues to climb rapidly. 

After a 1,547-page short-term spending bill was debuted this week. Musk quickly took to X to trash it, pointing out various seemingly irrelevant provisions as well as its cost and length. 

He was soon joined by other critics, and Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued their own statement opposing the bill. 

This led to significant criticism from Democrats unhappy with Musk’s apparent ability to influence Trump and the Republicans in Congress. 

‘He’s the one who seems to be calling the shots,’ Warren told reporters. 

‘Elon Musk is the one evidently in charge of the Republican Party and has blown that deal up. So I don’t know how the Republicans are planning to recover from that,’ she said. 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., suggested that Musk is ‘already the shadow speaker of the House,’ in a slight against House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

‘I think he’s unelected, and he’s created a whole lot of damage,’ said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

He claimed Republicans in Congress were ‘busy listening to Co-President Musk and co-President Trump.’ 

‘I’m listening to the people of Georgia, especially the farmers who are struggling to get disaster relief. And, we need to make sure that we get that over the finish line,’ said Warnock.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., reiterated that Musk is not an elected official. ‘He doesn’t have any official government job,’ he said. 

‘We had a deal with Republicans in the House and now, because of him, the president-elect is on the verge of people losing their jobs and not getting paid over the holidays,’ Kelly said of a potential partial shutdown if a bill is not passed by a deadline of midnight on Saturday morning. 

Despite their Democratic colleagues’ claims, Republicans pushed back on the idea that Trump was being influenced by Musk. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., noted that there are ‘lots of people around President Trump,’ adding that he doesn’t think Musk has control over what the president-elect does. 

Musk was tapped by Trump, along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead what is called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a proposed advisory board tasked with eliminating government waste.

The House has passed a bill to avert a partial government shutdown on Friday, hours before the midnight federal funding deadline. 

The bill, which needed approval from two-thirds of the chamber, passed overwhelmingly in a 366 to 34 vote. 

All Democrats voted for the bill save for Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who voted ‘present.’

Lawmakers were scrambling for a path forward after an initial bill was tanked by President-elect Trump and his allies on Wednesday, and a later bill approved by Trump failed on the House floor Thursday.

But Trump has stayed noticeably silent on this latest measure – which many House Republicans saw as a tacit sign of approval.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was optimistic after days of uncertainty, telling reporters there would be a House-wide vote Friday when leaving a closed-door House GOP meeting where leaders presented their plan.

‘We will not have a government shutdown, and we will meet our obligations for our farmers who need aid, for the disaster victims all over the country and for making sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays,’ Johnson said. 

Meanwhile, the national debt has climbed past $36 trillion, and the deficit is over $1.8 trillion.

The legislation, if passed in the Senate, would extend current government funding levels through mid-March, a measure known as a continuing resolution (CR), paired with just over $100 billion in disaster relief aid for victims of storms Helene and Milton, as well as assistance for the agriculture industry.

Johnson bypassed regular House procedures to get the legislation straight to a chamber-wide vote, a maneuver known as ‘suspension of the rules.’

In exchange for the fast track, however, the threshold for passage was raised from a simple majority to two-thirds of the House chamber, meaning Democratic support is critical.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told reporters he believed Johnson struck an agreement with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. A longtime Johnson critic, Massie said he would not vote for the bill.

‘Trump wanted a debt limit increase, and now we’re bringing the exact same bill to the floor without the debt limit increase,’ Massie said.

Another Republican lawmaker argued Johnson would not move forward without Trump’s blessing.

‘We wouldn’t do it if they weren’t,’ Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., said when asked if Trump and Elon Musk were supportive of the deal.

Trump and Musk led the conservative rebellion against the initial plan to avert a partial shutdown, a bipartisan deal that came from negotiations between the top two Democrats and Republicans in both Congressional chambers.

That bill, 1,547 pages, would have extended current government funding levels until March 14. However, GOP hardliners were angered by what they saw as unrelated measures attached to the bill, like a pay raise for congressional lawmakers, health care policy provisions and legislation aimed at revitalizing RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

It was scrapped as Trump and Musk threatened to force out of office any lawmaker who did not support pairing a CR with action on the debt limit.

The debt limit is suspended until January 2025 through a prior bipartisan deal, but Trump had pushed for Republicans to act on it now to avoid a messy, protracted fight early in his term.

The second iteration of the funding deal was much slimmer, coming in at 116 pages. It excluded the stadium bill and the congressional pay raise, but still included measures to fund the rebuilding of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and disaster aid funding. It also suspended the debt limit through January 2027.

A House vote on the second plan went down in flames, however, after 38 Republicans opposed to raising or suspending the debt limit voted with all but two Democrats to defeat the bill.

Johnson huddled with those holdouts Friday morning, along with Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, and Vice President-elect JD Vance. 

The bill that passed the House on Friday does not act on the debt limit, but Johnson pledged in that closed-door meeting to raise the debt limit early next year as part of Republicans’ plans for a massive policy and spending overhaul.

During their closed-door meeting Friday, House GOP leaders unveiled their CR plan as well as a plan to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, followed by $2.5 trillion in net spending cuts, multiple people told Fox News Digital.

Democrats who left their own closed-door meeting shortly before the vote largely said they would support the bill – which they did.

President Biden has said he would sign it into law if it reaches his desk after a Senate vote.

House lawmakers will soon vote on a bill to avert a partial government shutdown after a similar measure backed by President-elect Trump failed Thursday.

Congress is scrambling for a path forward as the clock ticks closer to the federal funding deadline, with a partial shutdown expected at 12:01 a.m. Saturday if no action is taken.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., suggested there would be a House-wide vote Friday when leaving a closed-door House GOP meeting where leaders presented their plan.

‘I expect that we will be proceeding forward,’ Johnson said. ‘We will not have a government shutdown, and we will meet our obligations for our farmers who need aid, for the disaster victims all over the country and for making sure that military and essential services and everyone who relies upon the federal government for a paycheck is paid over the holidays.’

Meanwhile, the national debt has climbed past $36 trillion, and the deficit is over $1.8 trillion.

Multiple lawmakers told Fox News Digital the forthcoming legislation would extend current government funding levels through mid-March, a measure known as a continuing resolution (CR), paired with just over $100 billion in disaster relief aid for victims of storms Helene and Milton, as well as assistance for the agriculture industry.

Johnson’s aim is to bypass regular House procedures to get the legislation straight to a chamber-wide vote, a maneuver known as ‘suspension of the rules.’

In exchange for the fast track, however, the threshold for passage is raised from a simple majority to two-thirds of the House chamber, meaning Democratic support is critical.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told reporters he believed Johnson struck an agreement with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. A longtime Johnson critic, Massie said he would not vote for the bill.

‘Trump wanted a debt limit increase, and now we’re bringing the exact same bill to the floor without the debt limit increase,’ Massie said.

Another Republican lawmaker argued Johnson would not move forward without Trump’s blessing.

‘We wouldn’t do it if they weren’t,’ Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., said when asked if Trump and Elon Musk were supportive of the deal.

Trump and Musk led the conservative rebellion against the initial plan to avert a partial shutdown, a bipartisan deal that came from negotiations between the top two Democrats and Republicans in both Congressional chambers.

That bill, 1,547 pages, would have extended current government funding levels until March 14. However, GOP hardliners were angered by what they saw as unrelated measures attached to the bill, like a pay raise for congressional lawmakers, health care policy provisions and legislation aimed at revitalizing RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

It was scrapped as Trump and Musk threatened to force out of office any lawmaker who did not support pairing a CR with action on the debt limit.

The debt limit is suspended until January 2025 through a prior bipartisan deal, but Trump had pushed for Republicans to act on it now to avoid a messy, protracted fight early in his term.

The second iteration of the funding deal was much slimmer, coming in at 116 pages. It excluded the stadium bill and the congressional pay raise, but still included measures to fund the rebuilding of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and disaster aid funding. It also suspended the debt limit through January 2027.

A House vote on the second plan went down in flames, however, after 38 Republicans opposed to raising or suspending the debt limit voted with all but two Democrats to defeat the bill.

Johnson huddled with those holdouts Friday morning, along with Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, and Vice President-elect JD Vance. 

The latest plan that’s expected to get a vote does not act on the debt limit, but Johnson pledged in that closed-door meeting to raise the debt limit early next year as part of Republicans’ plans for a massive policy and spending overhaul.

During their closed-door meeting Friday, House GOP leaders unveiled their CR plan as well as a plan to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, followed by $2.5 trillion in net spending cuts, multiple people told Fox News Digital.

It’s still not clear if the bill will sway all the 38 holdouts, however. Many had advocated for a plan to separate the CR from disaster relief and agricultural aid to vote on ‘single-subject’ bills.

But with a partial government shutdown looming just hours away, it appeared House leaders were running out of time to get that done by the end of Friday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre volleyed away reporters’ questions on Friday about President Biden’s lack of public appearances amid the ongoing government funding fight as a partial shutdown looms. 

Jean-Pierre refused to answer why the president has not spoken to the American public about his position, and she instead blamed Republicans, President-elect Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and their ‘billionaire friends’ like Elon Musk for the chaos on Capitol Hill. 

‘Why hasn’t President Biden said anything in the public about this? Don’t the American people deserve to know why millions of federal workers could enter this holiday period without a paycheck?’ Jean-Pierre was asked during her daily press briefing. 

‘All Americans need to know that Republicans are getting in the way here and they are the ones who have created this mess. That’s the reality. That’s the fact,’ she responded. ‘This is not the first time we’ve been here. And the president has had this approach before. He understands how Congress works. He’s been around for some time. He understands what strategy works here to get this done.’

Jean-Pierre said Friday that Biden has held phone calls with Democratic leaders in Congress — Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — but would not say if the president has spoken to the House speaker with regard to the ongoing discussions. 

‘He has been getting regular updates from his team. His team has been in touch with congressional members from both sides of the aisle,’ she said. 

A streamlined version of a bill backed by Trump to avert a partial government shutdown failed to pass the House of Representatives on Thursday night.

The bill, which needed two-thirds of the House chamber to pass, failed by a vote of 174 to 235. The national debt has soared to over $36 trillion, and the national deficit is over $1.8 trillion.

Jean-Pierre said Republicans went back on their word and ‘blew up this deal.’

‘Republicans need to stop playing politics with a government shutdown. And they are doing the bidding. They’re doing the bidding of their billionaire friends. That’s what we’re seeing at the expense of hard-working Americans,’ she said. 

‘There is a bipartisan agreement that Republicans tanked because of what they were directed to do by Elon Musk and President-elect Trump. That’s what happened. That is the reality that we’re in now.’

Musk, an outspoken critic of government waste, has weighed in on the spending bill debate and led a conservative revolt against the first 1,547-page bill due to its bloated spending provisions, calling for lawmakers who supported the bill to lose their seats.

He supported the newer, slimmer version, which was ultimately rejected by House members. 

Reporters tried several different ways to try and get Jean-Pierre to comment on the president’s role in the matter, but she continued to sidestep.

‘The president is the President of the United States, and he is leading,’ she told a reporter, to which he responded: ‘To be clear, the strategy is he is leading by staying in the background?’

‘The strategy is that Congress, Republicans in particular, need to do their jobs and get out of their own way and focus on the American people, not their billionaire friends. That is what needs to happen. And that’s what the president wants to see,’ she replied.

Jean-Pierre also warned that a shutdown could disrupt the presidential transition process for the incoming administration.

‘If there is a shutdown — and I don’t want to get too much into hypotheticals — but this is the reality, transition activities will be restricted with limited exceptions, obviously, such as to prevent imminent threats to the safety of human life or the protection of property,’ she said.

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Friday that Republicans have a ‘good plan’ to avoid a partial government shutdown. 

Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., added: ‘I think you come to an agreement, then you get together and sit down and figure out, you know, if we can get across the finish line. And that’s probably what we’re about to do now.’

The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a more than 17,000-page report detailing its work this Congress, touting their success in protecting Americans against censorship of speech and the weaponization of federal law enforcement agencies, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Fox News Digital obtained the 17,019-page report compiled by the subcommittee, which falls under the House Judiciary Committee, led by Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. 

‘The Weaponization Committee conducted rigorous oversight of the Biden-Harris administrations weaponized government and uncovered numerous examples of federal government abuses,’ Jordan told Fox News Digital. ‘Through our oversight, we protected the First Amendment by investigating the censorship-industrial-complex, heard from numerous brave whistleblowers, stopped the targeting of Americans by the IRS and Department of Justice, and created serious legislative and policy changes that will benefit all Americans.’ 

The report, first obtained by Fox News Digital, states that the ‘founding documents of the United States articulate the ideals of the American republic and guarantee to all American citizens fundamental rights and liberties. 

‘For too long, however, the American people have faced a two-tiered system of government—one of favorable treatment for the politically-favored class, and one of intimidation and unfairness for the rest of American citizens,’ it continues. ‘Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the contrast between these two tiers has become even more stark.’ 

The committee was created to ‘stand up for the American people,’ the report says, highlighting its work to ‘bring abuses by the federal government into the light for the American people and ensure that Congress, as their elected representatives, can take action to remedy them.’ 

The mission of the subcommittee was to ‘protect and strengthen the fundamental rights of the American people,’ the report said, noting that by investigating, uncovering and documenting executive branch misconduct, lawmakers on the panel have taken ‘important steps to ensure that the federal government no longer works against the American people.’ 

‘This work is not complete, but it is a necessary first step to stop the weaponization of the federal government,’ the report states. 

The committee, from its inception, says it has been working to protect free speech and expand upon the constitutional protections of the First Amendment. 

‘Throughout the Biden-Harris administration, multiple federal agencies, including the White House, have engaged in a vast censorship campaign against so-called mis-, dis-, or malinformation,’ the report states, noting that the subcommittee revealed the extent of the ‘censorship-industrial complex,’ and detailed how the federal government and law enforcement coordinated with academics, nonprofits, and other private entities to censor speech online.’ 

The panel is touting its work, saying its oversight has ‘had a real effect in expanding the First Amendment.’ 

‘In a Supreme Court dissent, three justices noted how the Select Subcommittee’s investigation revealed that ‘valuable speech was..suppressed,’’ the report states. 

And in a letter to the subcommittee, Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the Biden-Harris administration ‘pressured’ Facebook to censor Americans. 

‘Facebook gave in to this pressure, demoting posts and content that was highly relevant to political discourse in the United States,’ the report states. 

And in another win for the subcommittee, in response to its work, universities and other groups shut down their ‘disinformation’ research, and federal agencies ‘slowed their communications with Big Tech.’ 

The committee also celebrated a ‘big win’ in October after it prevented the creation of a new ‘GARM,’ an advertising association that engaged in censorship and boycotts of conservative media companies. The committee revealed, before it was disbanded, that GARM had been discussing ways to ensure conservative news outlets and platforms could not receive advertising dollars and were engaged in boycotts of conservative voices and Twitter once it became ‘X’ under the ownership of Elon Musk. 

Meanwhile, the subcommittee also investigated the alleged weaponization of federal law enforcement resources. 

In speaking with a number of whistleblowers, the subcommittee learned of waste, fraud and abuse at the FBI. 

‘When these whistleblowers came forward, the bureau brutally retaliated against many of them for breaking ranks—suspending them without pay, preventing them from seeking outside employment, and even purging suspected disloyal employees,’ the report states, noting that the subcommittee revealed that the FBI ‘abused its security clearance adjudication process to target whistleblowers.’ 

The report references the FBI’s response, in which the bureau admitted its ‘error’ and reinstated the security clearance of one decorated FBI employee. 

The subcommittee also was tasked with investigating the executive branch’s actions in ‘intruding and interfering with Americans’ constitutionally protected activity.’ 

For example, the subcommittee revealed ‘and stopped’ the FBI’s effort to target Catholic Americans because of their religious views; detailed the DOJ’s directives to target parents at school board meetings; stopped the Internal Revenue Service from making ‘unannounced visits to American taxpayers’ homes;’ caused the DOJ to change its internal policies to ‘respect the separation of powers and limit subpoenas for Legislative Branch employees; and highlighted the ‘vast warrantless surveillance of Americans by federal law enforcement.’ 

The panel also investigated the federal government’s election interference, highlighting the FBI’s ‘fervent efforts to ‘prebunk’ a story about the Biden family’s influence peddling scheme in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.’ 

The panel also investigated and demonstrated how the 2020 Biden campaign ‘colluded with the intelligence community to falsely discredit this story as ‘Russian disinformation.’’

The report includes a list of hearings the subcommittee held, letters sent by the subcommittee and subpoenas issued by the panel.

It also includes depositions and transcribed interviews conducted by the subcommittee. The subcommittee conducted 99 depositions and transcribed interviews during this Congress.

Depositions and interviews included in the massive report are of former FBI officials and CIA officials, like former Director John Brennan, former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office involved in the original hush money probe against President Trump, Mark Pomerantz, and interviews with Facebook, Meta and Google officials.

It was former President Obama who famously quipped that ‘elections have consequences,’ and one of the consequences of the 2024 election is that President-elect Donald Trump asked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to help him straighten out the government’s books.

Now, just days before Christmas, the United States is staring down a federal government shutdown as Democrats cling to power while the hourglass runs out on the 118th Congress, all because Musk exposed the bloated spending being proposed to fund the feds.

‘We had a deal!’ the Democrats whine. And they did have a terrible, pork-laden, censorship-riddled, and at 1,500 pages, needlessly long disaster of a bill, that Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson never should have agreed to in the first place. 

The purpose of the continuing resolution that Congress is struggling to pass is to keep the lights on until March, when a new Republican-controlled Senate will be in power and Trump will be in the White House. Instead, as Musk rightly pointed out, we got, if not an omnibus bill, at least an omni-minivan bill, bloated to the gills.

In Washington, the most typical route is the path of least resistance, and Republicans figured they could give in to one last big Biden spending package before Trump takes over. But that was when Musk and Ramaswamy stepped in.

On Wednesday, just hours before a planned vote in the House of Representatives, Musk started firing off X posts about every 30 seconds or so, decrying the congressional pay raise hidden in the bill, and the money to fund the Global Engagement Center, a sham operation that censors conservatives, along with a plethora of other pork.

Proving the power of Trump and new media forms such as X, the ship of state started to turn almost immediately, away from the shambolic ‘everything’ bill towards a cleaner, ‘plain’ continuing resolution that just funds the basics.

On Thursday night, every single Democrat in the House voted against that bill, along with 38 bloody-minded objectors in the Republican caucus.

First, as to the recalcitrant Republican no votes, let’s take Rep. Chip Roy, as an example. If he was dying, and Congress voted on a ‘save Chip Roy’s life’ bill, the congressman from Texas would be a hard ‘no’ if there weren’t spending offsets. It’s just who he is.

This is to say that the GOP ‘no’ votes were baked into the cake, and Democrats thought they could use them to push through their CVS receipt of absurd and expensive demands.

And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those meddlesome kids, Musk and Ramaswamy.

Come Saturday, the government may be shut down. If it is, it will not be the fault of Republicans who have now put a perfectly reasonable bill on the floor, but of Democrats who prize their own power more than federal employees being paid on Christmas week.

Elections have consequences, and Trump was clear that, if elected, outsiders like Musk and Ramaswamy were going to have not just a seat at the table, but real power and influence in furtherance of the Trump agenda.

Perhaps more than anything, what voters were asking for when they handed the keys of the state back to Trump on Election Day was change. Anything but more of the same. And this week, that is exactly what the voters got.

Make no mistake, Trump is taking a real political risk here. Democrats are going to do all they can now to blame him for the shutdown, paint him as Musk’s puppet and to stir up rank partisanship to dampen the optimism and enthusiasm ahead of the inauguration.

But what Trump and Musk are both counting on is that this kind of radical change, as much as it looks like chaos, is exactly what voters asked for. 

Politicians are ultimately judged on results, not tactics. As ugly as the scene in Congress is right now, the result, the death of a terrible spending package, should bring results that Americans will eventually cheer.

Top Senate Democrats Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., made clear they only intend to move forward on the original stopgap spending bill plan that Republicans scrapped after pressure from billionaire Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump.

Murray said she is prepared for a partial government shutdown and to stay in Washington D.C., for the Christmas holiday if Republicans do not return to the original short-term spending bill that was released earlier this week and subsequently killed after Musk and others publicly opposed its provisions.

‘I’m ready to stay here through Christmas because we’re not going to let Elon Musk run the government,’ she said in a Friday morning statement, hours before the government could be sent into a partial shutdown if a bill is not passed. 

As of Thursday, the U.S. national debt was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and continues to climb rapidly. 

‘Put simply, we should not let an unelected billionaire rip away research for pediatric cancer so he can get a tax cut or tear down policies that help America outcompete China because it could hurt his bottom line. We had a bipartisan deal-we should stick to it,’ Murray said. 

In floor remarks on Friday morning, Schumer said, ‘if Republicans do not work with Democrats in a bipartisan way very soon, the government will shut down at midnight.’

‘It’s time to go back to the original agreement we had just a few days ago. It’s time the House votes on our bipartisan CR. It’s the quickest, simplest and easiest way we can make sure the government stays open while delivering critical emergency aid to the American people.’

He also said that if Speaker Mike Johnson were to put the original bill on the House floor for a vote, ‘it would pass, and we could put the threat of a shutdown behind us.’

Murray added, ‘The deal that was already agreed to would responsibly fund the government, offer badly needed disaster relief to communities across America, and deliver some good bipartisan policy reforms. The American people do not want chaos or a costly government shutdown all because an unelected billionaire wants to call the shots — I am ready to work with Republicans and Democrats to pass the bipartisan deal both sides negotiated as soon as possible.’ 

After Musk and conservatives railed against the 1,547-page bill, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance ultimately condemned it as well, killing whatever chance it had left. 

Murray’s Friday statement came shortly after it was revealed that House Republicans were planning a new continuing resolution (CR) vote in the morning on a different proposal. It’s unclear whether negotiations are taking place across party lines or bicamerally, however. 

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told reporters Friday morning that House Republicans were ‘very close to a deal’ and that a vote could happen in the morning.

However, if that deal is not the original stopgap spending bill, it sounds like Murray and Democrats in the Senate would be prepared to oppose it. 

Murray also isn’t the only one who says they are prepared to let the government’s funding expire before the holiday. Several Republicans have expressed their willingness to let it shut down if Republicans aren’t able to get a better deal. 

Trump himself wrote on Truth Social Friday morning, ‘If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under ‘TRUMP.’ This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!’

Congress must pass a measure, and it must be signed by President Biden by midnight on Saturday morning in order to avoid a partial shutdown. 

A group of U.S. officials are in Syria’s capital for the first time in more than 10 years seeking information on American citizens who disappeared under the Assad regime, among other things.

The team visiting Damascus consists of US Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) Barbara Leaf and NEA Senior Adviser Daniel Rubinstein, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Rubinstein, who previously served as U.S. Special Envoy for Syria and has decades of foreign affairs experience, will lead the diplomatic engagement, the spokesperson confirmed. 

His mission is to engage with the Syrian people and key parties within the country. He also seeks to coordinate with allies to advance principles laid out in a meeting between world leaders in the Jordanian city of Aqaba earlier this month.

The trio will meet with the Syrian people to uncover their vision for their country after the Assad regime fell earlier this month amid an ongoing civil war. They will also ask how the U.S. can help support them in their desired future.

‘They will be engaging directly with the Syrian people, including members of civil society, activists, members of different communities, and other Syrian voices,’ the spokesperson said, in part.

The three officials will also meet with representatives of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a U.S.-designated terrorist group, to ‘discuss transition principles’ endorsed by the United States and regional partners in Aqaba, Jordan, the State Department said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously noted that world leaders discussed ‘the need for an inclusive, Syrian-led political transition’ during the Aqaba Meetings on Syria in Jordan on Dec. 14.

‘The United States supports a future government in Syria that is chosen by and representatives of all Syrians,’ Blinken said on X.

Another goal of the visit is to determine what has happened to American citizens who disappeared under the Assad regime, including former marine turned freelance journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria in 2012.

Carstens has been leading the charge to locate Tice and recently shared that Rewards for Justice is offering up to $10 million for information on his whereabouts.

‘Given recent events in Syria, the FBI is renewing our call for information that could lead to the safe location, recovery, and return of Austin Bennett Tice, who was detained in Damascus in August 2012,’ the FBI said in a statement.