US President-elect Donald Trump has welcomed a string of business and political leaders to Mar-a-Lago
President-elect Donald Trump is demanding lawmakers pass a spending bill that either extends or scraps the debt ceiling. AFP

President-elect Donald Trump early Friday demanded that Congress either scrap or extend the "ridiculous" debt ceiling to 2029 after the House rejected a spending bill he backed that would have pushed it to 2027 - as House Speaker Mike Johnson scrambles to craft a measure to avert a shutdown that looms hours away.

The GOP-led House defeated a spending bill on Thursday 235-174, with 38 Republicans voting against the deal in defiance of Trump and Republican leadership.

"Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President," Trump said on his Truth Social media platform, trying to shift blame for the deadlock on President Joe Biden, who has remained out of the fray.

For fiscally conservative Republicans, extending the debt ceiling is a bridge too far.

"I just voted my conscience," Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, said when asked about going against Trump's demands. "I have a hard time voting for a bill over a trillion dollars that I haven't even been able to read yet."

The government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday if an agreement is not reached, leaving tens of thousands of federal workers in the lurch during the holidays.

Trump and Elon Musk, whom he tapped to lead a government efficiency panel in his administration, doomed a 1,500-page agreement Johnson negotiated with Democratic leaders in the House earlier this week.

Musk, the world's richest man, savagely attacked the measure on X, the social media platform he owns, and called out lawmakers who planned to vote on the bill, saying "any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years."

Trump suggested Republicans who vote for the package should be primaried.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his caucus supports the original deal negotiated with Johnson and dismissed the new measure as "laughable."

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