Trump’s point men on the new Department of Government Efficiency are leading the charge against a continuing resolution aimed at averting a government shutdown ahead of the former president’s return to power. Republican lawmakers are publicly sowing dissension against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in the lead-up to January. The House Ethics Committee is poised to release its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the combative Florida Republican who helped topple the last GOP House speaker.

Just this week, Trump was enjoying the closest thing he has ever had to a honeymoon since he became involved in national politics. The transition has been polling relatively well. The “Resistance” seemed exhausted, and Johnson’s gavel looked secure.

Even the controversies surrounding several of Trump’s nominees, the one discordant note since Republicans won unified control of the federal government, looked headed in the right direction as Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth went on offense, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to reassure social conservatives that he would not push abortion at the Department of Health and Human Services.

The unity was upended Wednesday by the fight over the 1,547-page spending bill that includes a congressional pay raise, with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy wading right into the middle of the fracas. 

“Absolutely, this bill should NOT pass,” Musk posted on X. “A new bill that isn’t an insane crime against the American people should be done in 33 days.”

That was the number of days from Wednesday until Trump’s inauguration next month.

“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” declared Musk, who has a super PAC that helped elect Trump this year.

“The bill could have easily been under 20 pages. Instead, there are dozens of unrelated policy items crammed into the 1,547 pages of this bill,” posted Ramaswamy. “There’s no legitimate reason for them to be voted on as a package deal by a lame-duck Congress.”

“We’re grateful for DOGE’s warm reception on Capitol Hill,” he added. “Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller & more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. The bill should fail.”

Musk and Ramaswamy are heading up Trump’s DOGE task force to cut spending and bureaucracy. Trump has been supportive of Johnson in the past, but he and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance came out against the short-term spending bill Wednesday, suggesting the DOGE duo hadn’t gotten ahead of themselves.

“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling,” Trump and Vance said. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”

Trump has been slower to issue social media directives to Republican lawmakers during this transition process.

Johnson has a far better relationship with Trump than former House Speaker Paul Ryan and outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who were the top two GOP congressional leaders during Trump’s first term. Trump and McConnell did find success together, however, in remaking the federal judiciary, including a 6-3 Republican majority on the Supreme Court.

However, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said he would not vote for Johnson for speaker next month, and members stoked rumors of a speakership fight reminiscent of the one that followed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster, with some of the same names being floated.

While all of this was unfolding, Gaetz was launching preemptive strikes against the House Ethics Committee report on its investigation into his conduct. Gaetz was a ringleader of the motion to vacate McCarthy and the first Trump Cabinet nominee to be pulled. He threatened Wednesday to show up for the start of the next Congress, participate in the next speaker’s election, “file a privileged motion to expose every ‘me too’ settlement paid using public funds (even of former members),” and then follow through with his resignation from the House to start a new job at One America News Network. 

Republicans have a slender majority in the House, which has made legislating without Democratic help extremely difficult. It won’t get much better next year, though Republicans will also control the Senate for the first time since the last Trump administration. 

Despite Johnson’s slim margin for error, there has yet to be a government shutdown on his watch. However, each spending fight has put him in conflict with Republican lawmakers. 

Heritage Action came out against the latest spending bill Wednesday. There are already reports that Johnson may jettison it in favor of a bill that funds the government without the provisions that raise conservatives’ ire, which seems more likely now that Trump has weighed in directly.

We may soon see what difference Trump can make in a dynamic among Republicans on Capitol Hill that has become familiar.