Trump opposes deal to avert government shutdown: statement

US president-elect Donald Trump came out Wednesday against a mammoth package allocating funding to avert a fast-approaching US government shutdown after a trove of spending added to the text ballooned costs, outraging conservatives.

Suggesting that concessions to Democrats in the bill were “a betrayal of our country,” Trump said in a joint statement with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance: “Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF.”