Biden to cut foreign trip short over debt ceiling negotiations

President Biden will cut short an upcoming foreign trip, skipping planned stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia amid increasingly urgent talks between the White House and Congress over how to raise the government’s debt limit and avoid a potentially catastrophic default.

Biden will still leave Wednesday to attend a Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, but will return to the U.S. on Sunday. He had initially planned to follow up the event in Japan with a stop in Papua New Guinea, the first by an American president, and a stay in Australia to talk about countering China’s influence.

Earlier on Tuesday, White House officials had suggested that Biden might cut the trip short due to the ongoing negotiations. The president has been talking with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other congressional leaders as they seek ways to avoid a default before June 1, when officials estimate the government will no longer be able to pay it bills if the debt ceiling is not raised.

“We are reevaluating the rest of the trip right now,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters Tuesday afternoon just before Biden met with congressional leaders in the Oval Office.

A short time later, the decision became official, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not yet been made public.

Biden’s meeting with congressional leaders Tuesday afternoon was his second in a week. Republicans have demanded far-reaching spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, but the president has long pledged not to negotiate on it, saying it is the responsibility of both parties to allow the government to borrow enough to meet obligations incurred by both Democrats and Republicans in earlier years.

But the president has also said he is willing to discuss spending levels with Republicans at the same time as he talks about the debt limit, leaving open the possibility that GOP leaders can depict the two issues as linked while Democrats insist they are separate.

In recent weeks the back-and-forth has taken on the air of political brinkmanship, as Biden warns about the disastrous effects of a default and Republicans insist it is long past time to cut back on government spending.

The cancellation of part of Biden’s trip could send a signal, to lawmakers and the public in general, that he is committed to solving the problem and avoiding the calamitous effect of a default on the U.S. economy. But it is likely to be greeted with disappointment in Australia and Papua New Guinea, where the presidential visit was slated to be a major event.