View of Capitol as Trump-backed spending deal dead and shutdown imminent

A view of the US Capitol followed a failed Donald Trump-backed spending bill in the House of Representatives vote on Thursday.

Democrats killed the bill, leaving Congress with no clear plan to avert a looming government shutdown that could have brought chaos before Christmas.

Elon Musk, whom the president-elect had tipped to lead the newly-created “department of government efficiency,” had waded in to scupper a previous bipartisan deal.

The bill failed, with all but two Democrats and 38 Republicans voting against it, and 172 Republicans voting for it.

House Republicans said they had struck a deal on a short-term funding bill 24 hours after Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump had derailed a resolution, steering the government into a shutdown the weekend before Christmas.

Congressional Democrats had called the plan that Trump’s billionaire deputy had touted hours earlier “laughable.”

House Democrats had been heard chanting “hell no” as they met to review it on Thursday.

Reacting to the vote, the billionaire had blasted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and said the bill could have helped states reeling from hurricanes earlier that year.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr. Trump had praised the deal and claimed it would have kept the government open and pushed the debt ceiling deadline back two years.