WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump delivered a likely death blow to bipartisan congressional budget negotiations on Wednesday, rejecting the measure as full of giveaways to Democrats after billionaire ally Elon Musk whipped up outrage toward the bill and cheered on Republican lawmakers who announced their opposition.
Trump's joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance, which stopped the bill in its tracks, punctuated a daylong torrent of social media posts by Musk attacking the legislation for what he described as excessive spending.
“Stop the steal of your tax dollars!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X as he dangled primary challenges against anyone who voted for the budget deal, a threat Trump later echoed in a post of his own.
The episode showcased the growing political influence of Musk, whom Trump has selected alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency, a nongovernmental task force formed to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and reduce regulations.
Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, said his office was flooded with calls from constituents.
“My phone was ringing off the hook," he said. “The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk.”
In his statement with Vance, Trump said Republicans should restart negotiations over the legislation, arguing that “anything else is a betrayal of our country.” He also called for including an extension of the debt ceiling while President Joe Biden is in office.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch," they said. "If Democrats won’t cooperate on a debt ceiling increase now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate over the debt ceiling now.”
Trump's opposition to what was considered must-pass legislation reinjected a sense of chaos and political brinkmanship that was reminiscent of his first term in office. It was a dramatic turn of events for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who negotiated the bill and has been undermined by Trump as he faces reelection for his post in just a couple of weeks. Republicans have a slim majority, raising the possibility of a replay of leadership disputes that paralyzed the House a year ago.
Many lawmakers were in the middle of holiday and year-end celebrations with staff when Trump came out against the legislation.
“I’ve been here 14 years, OK? So nothing up here surprises me anymore,” said Rep. Steve Womack, a senior Republican appropriator from Arkansas. “We shouldn’t be in this mess.”
The Biden administration criticized the possibility of a shutdown.
"Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a veteran of Washington's budget battles, was concerned about the lack of a clear plan for resolving the dispute.
"There’s got to be a second part of the strategy," he said.
Norquist has been enthusiastic about Musk's ability to generate public attention for efforts to reduce the size of government. But he suggested that the owner of a space rocket company wasn't the right person to spearhead a congressional spending debate.
“He doesn’t know politics like he knows physics," he said.
But others were thrilled with Musk's involvement.
“In five years in Congress, I’ve been awaiting a fundamental change in the dynamic,” posted Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican from North Carolina. “It has arrived.”
Musk began criticizing the measure as soon as it was released Tuesday evening, and he continuously posted about it Wednesday.
"Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!" he wrote. He also called it “one of the worst bills ever written.”
Sometimes Musk amplified false claims, such as the idea that the legislation included $3 billion for a new football stadium in Washington. In reality, the legislation would transfer ownership of the land from the federal government to the city, paving the way for eventual development.
Musk appeared emboldened by the experience.
“The voice of the people was heard,” Musk wrote. “This was a good day for America."
Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries said the fallout would be Republicans' fault.
“You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow," he wrote on X.
Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
FILE - Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., pauses as he enters a closed-door strategy session with fellow Republicans as they work on a final version of a spending bill before federal agencies run out of money at midnight on Friday night, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The shooter at a religious school in Wisconsin had two handguns with her but used only one in the attack that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others, the city's police chief said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday, before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
“We may never know what she was thinking that day, but we’ll do our best to try to add or give as much information to our public as possible," Barnes said.
The student who was killed was identified in an obituary released Wednesday as Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, of Madison. She was a freshman at the school and “an avid reader, loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band,” according to the obituary. The Associated Press' attempts to reach the girl's family by phone and email on Wednesday evening were unsuccessful.
The Dane County medical examiner Wednesday evening identified the teacher who was killed as 42-year-old Erin Michelle West, after initially identifying her as Michelle E. West. A man who answered the phone at a number listed for West in public records hung up when reached by a reporter Wednesday evening.
Barnes released the name of the shooter, Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, hours after the shooting on Monday. Barnes said the medical examiner would release the names of those killed, but the state's crime victims privacy law would bar releasing the names of those wounded.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with her parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes said.
Police don't know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
While Rupnow had two handguns, Barnes said he does not know how she obtained them and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow's parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes said.
Online court records show no criminal cases against her father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or her mother, Mellissa Rupnow. They are divorced and shared custody of their daughter, but she primarily lived with her father, according to court documents. Divorce records indicate that Natalie was in therapy in 2022, but don’t say why.
Tension over police not releasing information had spilled over into a news conference on Tuesday, where Barnes left without taking questions. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway grew increasingly terse in her responses as reporters asked questions she could not answer.
“It is absolutely none of y’alls business who was harmed in this incident,” Rhodes-Conway said. ”Please, have some human decency and respect for the people who lost loved ones or were injured themselves or whose children were injured. Just have some human decency, folks. Leave them alone. Let them grieve. Let them recover. Let them heal. Don’t feed off their pain. We’ll share what we can when we can and not before that.”
Barnes on Wednesday defended the police department's handling of information about the shooting because it has moved from a crisis response to the investigation phase.
“We’ve been trying to be as transparent as possible to give as much information as we can during the critical phase of this incident,” Barnes said. “Now we’re in the investigative phase. And so the information may not be as forthcoming.”
Tamrin Olden, a former police department spokesperson in California whose company provides communications training for law enforcement, said she advises departments to give routine updates with factual information after critical incidents and avoid unnecessarily delaying the release of information. She said that communications errors can cause frustration in the community, undermine the public's trust and compound the underlying tragedy.
“Your credibility gets tarnished and the incident sometimes gets remembered for these things rather than remembering and honoring the victims, which is where the focus should be,” she said.
The police department has had to correct some key misstatements since Monday, including that three and not five people had died and that a second-grade teacher, not a second-grade student, called 911.
Paul Bucher, the former Waukesha County district attorney who was involved in a number of high-profile cases, said the media has unrealistic expectations about how quickly officials should release information in high-profile incidents. His cases have included prosecuting former Green Bay Packers star tight end Mark Chmura for sexual assault in 2000 and being part of the team that dealt with the aftermath of a mass shooting at a church gathering in Brookfield in 2005 that left seven people dead.
“The government is fed up with the media,” he said. “They have no obligation to disclose anything to you at all. Based on the mayor’s statement, ‘this is not y’all’s business,’ that’s pretty indicative that they’ve had it.”
But Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders, a longtime Madison journalist, said Wednesday that authorities should be more transparent with the facts.
“It’s a problem that so little information has been released. I do not accept that this is necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation,” he said. “The public has a right to know.”
The school shooting was the latest among dozens across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
But it stands out because school shootings by teenage females have been extremely rare in the U.S., with males in their teens and 20s carrying out the majority of them, said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students.
This story has been updated to correct the name of the teacher killed to Erin Michelle West, according to the medical examiner’s office, which initially identified her as Michelle E. West. It also has been updated to correct that Emily Salisbury is an associate professor of social work at the University of Utah, not an associate sociology professor.
Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.
Dan Beazley stands with the homemade cross he brought from Michigan for victims of a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
Police tape remained after a shooting Monday at Abundant Life Christian School on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024 in Madison, Wis. (AP photo/Mark Vancleave)
Dan Beazley stands with the homemade cross he brought from Michigan for victims of a shooting at Abundant Life Christin School on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024 in Madison, Wis. (AP photo/Mark Vancleave)
Supporters sign crosses during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Madison Police chief Shon F. Barnes speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
People put flowers outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Flowers and candles are placed outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
People put flowers outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Flowers and candles are placed outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
A supporter signs a cross during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
