Donald Trump hopes a Republican challenges U.S. Rep. Chip Roy over debt ceiling opposition

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump invited a primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Chip Roy on Thursday for his opposition to raising the debt ceiling without stringent restrictions on future spending, calling the Austin Republican an “obstructionist.”

“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. Republican obstructionists have to be done away with,” Trump posted on his social media platform.

“Chip Roy is just another ambitious guy, with no talent,” Trump continued. “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 made a surprise appeal to raise — or even abolish — the debt ceiling Wednesday, asserting the politically noxious task would be better to get done while President Joe Biden is still in office. The debt ceiling impacts borrowing for spending that has already been allocated. Failure to raise the borrowing limit could mean the U.S. would be unable to pay interest on its loans — a default that economists say would have devastating impacts on faith in the nation’s economy.

Republicans in the past have used the debt ceiling to corner Democrats into policy that limits future spending. Trump and his vice president-elect, JD Vance, said in a statement Wednesday that they wanted to raise the debt ceiling now to prevent Democrats from doing the same to them to advance liberal policy.

“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vance said in their joint statement. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?”

But Roy has fought vehemently to bring down federal spending and opposes lifting the debt ceiling without using it to force Democrats to agree to future spending limits. Speaking on Sean Hannity's radio show on Thursday, Roy said he was willing to raise the debt ceiling, “but only with spending restraint and structural reforms.”

Roy is not afraid to ruffle feathers on Capitol Hill if it means fighting for his principles of limited government. He has clashed with leadership on limiting funding and allowing more input from the rank and file on leadership’s decisions. He has also clashed with Trump and his allies, endorsing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary. He later supported Trump in the general election.

Roy ran unopposed in his Republican primary this year. Roy represents parts of Austin and San Antonio. He won reelection in November by nearly 26 points.

The pitch to eliminate the debt ceiling comes while the U.S. House is roiled in a separate fight over funding the government beyond Friday at midnight, when current funding expires.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, introduced earlier this week a measure, known as a continuing resolution, to keep the government funded at current levels until March of next year, giving Congress time to write legislation for spending for the rest of next year. Without the resolution, much of the federal government will shutdown until Congress comes to a deal to fund the government.

Republicans revolted against the continuing resolution for including over 1,500 pages of added priorities unrelated to keeping the government open and providing little time to review the entire bill text. The right wing of the party, particularly Roy, has decried massive legislation like this in the past, saying it skirts accountability by the rank-and-file members and is another way to pass extraneous spending.

“It’s $110 billion of unpaid for deficit spending that will continue to pile on to the debt,” Roy said.

Among the priorities included in the bill were billions of dollars in funding for disaster response, including over $5.4 billion for Texas following Hurricane Beryl. The bill also contained Republican priorities including Sen. Ted Cruz’s Take It Down Act, that would criminalize pornographic deep fakes.

Elon Musk, the Texas transplant and billionaire who was named to be one of Trump’s leads on government efficiency, put up a clarion call among the right, posting repeatedly on social media to “Kill the Bill.”

Democrats were furious that an unelected billionaire like Musk could have so much sway among the Republican party to tank the legislation.

“Hurricane Beryl hit Texas in 2024, damaging 3 million homes, costing $4.6B, and leaving 7,000 jobless. The bill offers $5.4B to help Texans rebuild. But unelected [Elon Musk] decided that Texans can lose jobs and businesses,” U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said on social media.