WASHINGTON – Donald Trump lambasted U.S. Rep. Chip Roy after the Texas Republican pushed back on the president-elect’s call to suspend or abolish the debt ceiling.
Trump posted criticism on social media Thursday that included an implicit political threat to the Austin congressman as he invoked the example of U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who lost in the primary this year after getting crosswise with Trump.
“Chip Roy is just another ambitious guy, with no talent. By the way, how’s Bob Good doing?” Trump said on Truth Social. “I hope some talented challengers are getting ready in the Great State of Texas to go after Chip in the Primary. He won’t have a chance!”
Trump and his allies, including Elon Musk, torpedoed a deal that House Republican leaders negotiated with Democrats earlier this week to keep the government funded past a Friday night deadline and avoid a partial shutdown.
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That proposal included disaster aid, farm assistance and a host of other priorities of both parties.
Roy joined Trump and other critics in blasting the deal, in part for including too much spending and too many concessions to Democrats. But he balked at a key Trump demand that the deal address the debt ceiling, a law that caps how much the government can borrow.
Congress previously suspended the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, but the Treasury Department can deploy extraordinary measures expected to push the deadline until at least the spring.
That sets up Democrats to make demands of Trump next year in exchange for votes to raise the debt ceiling, which is necessary to avoid a potentially devastating default. The incoming president wants to avoid being put in that situation.
Roy said on a conservative radio program Thursday that Trump’s desire to deny Democrats leverage is understandable, but he emphasized ditching the debt ceiling without accompanying reforms would be a bad move.
“I will not vote for a debt-ceiling increase without structural reforms to spending,” Roy said on The Sean Hannity Show. “I’m not going to do that. I wasn’t sent to Washington to do that.”
Republican leaders came up with a new proposal for keeping the government funded that they planned to put on the House floor Thursday night.
Roy described the new proposal as a “watered-down version of the same crappy bill that people were mad about yesterday” but with the addition of a two-year debt ceiling suspension.
“Do you know what that’s worth? $4 trillion of additional debt,” Roy said on the radio show.
He reiterated a complaint he’s lodged before: Many of his fellow Republicans talk about spending cuts but don’t follow through on their rhetoric.
Like Good, Roy has been a leading member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
Trump’s criticism of Roy reflects tension that is likely to continue in the new Congress between the incoming president and some of the most deeply conservative members of the Freedom Caucus.
“The very unpopular ‘Congressman’ from Texas, Chip Roy, is getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory – All for the sake of some cheap publicity for himself,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump said “Republican obstructionists have to be done away with” as they are being used by Democrats.
“Weak and ineffective people like Chip have to be dismissed as being utterly unknowledgeable as to the ways of politics, and as to Making America Great Again,” Trump said.
