President Trump told House Republicans during a closed-door meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday to drop their push for further changes to the “big, beautiful bill” and pass it this week.
On two of the biggest outstanding issues – Medicaid and the state and local tax deduction, or SALT – the president urged Republicans to accept what has already been agreed to and pass the bill.
“I think his message was a lot of good, hard negotiations have been going on, but it’s time now to close this out,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican.
Specifically, the president warned Republicans, “Don’t f – – – with Medicaid.”
The bill already makes some adjustments to Medicaid that would reduce federal spending on the massive government health care program. But conservatives want to do more to lower federal funding for states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare to cover able-bodied adults.
Mr. Trump told reporters ahead of the meeting that Republicans would not make any “meaningful” cuts to Medicaid.
SEE ALSO: Trump slams ‘grandstander’ Rep. Massie for opposing his massive agenda bill
“The only thing we’re cutting is waste, fraud and abuse,” he said, noting that if he wanted to gut entitlement programs, he would have done so in his first term.
During the closed-door confab, Mr. Trump did not get into many details of the negotiations, but urged GOP holdouts to get on board with the massive tax cuts and spending cuts in the bill.
GOP leaders cannot afford to lose more than three Republican votes on the bill, and they start with at least one, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who will not be swayed.
Mr. Trump called Mr. Massie a “grandstander” and said he should be “voted out of office.” Mr. Massie said he is “not worried about losing.”
Several other members remained unmoved after the president’s visit.
“The president, I don’t think, convinced enough people that the bill is adequate the way it is,” said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, Maryland Republican. “Look, the president called for eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid, and we have not eliminated waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid in the bill.”
He said the votes do not exist to pass the bill this week and Republicans should spend the upcoming Memorial Day weekend and recess week following to negotiate changes needed to get enough members on board.
Fellow Freedom Caucus member Andy Biggs, Arizona Republican, said Mr. Trump’s speech was “a lot of fun” but that he would still like to see further spending cuts added to the bill to avoid massive deficits.
New York Reps. Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino, who are among a handful of blue-state Republicans pushing for a higher SALT deduction, said Mr. Trump did not convince them to stop fighting for more tax relief for their constituents.
“While I respect the president, I’m not budging on it,” Mr. Lawler said.
Mr. Trump directly called out Mr. Lawler, who represents one of only three Republican districts that Vice President Kamala Harris carried in the 2024 presidential election.
“He just said he loved Lawler. He thought he was a great guy. But the fact is … you’re not going to win or lose an election based on SALT,” said Rep. Beth Van Duyne, Texas Republican.
She said Mr. Trump stressed that point to the entire conference, that they won’t win or lose an election based on the bill.
“You’re going to win or lose an election based on what happens with the economy. And this is an amazing time to be able to boost the economy, grow job opportunities and help middle-class Americans,” Ms. Van Duyne said of the president’s message.
Mr. Trump told Republicans seeking a further increase in the SALT cap to accept the deal that’s on the table.
Some lawmakers took that to mean the proposal in the bill that would triple the existing $10,000 SALT cap to $30,000, but Mr. Trump was not that specific. GOP leaders have floated other offers to blue-state Republicans who still want a higher cap, but no agreement has been reached.
Mr. LaLota said he interpreted the president’s message as a directive “to figure it out,” not to stop negotiating.
“What’s in the bill right now is a total non-starter for the SALT caucus,” Mr. LaLota said. “We started to talk about numbers greater than that last night in the speaker’s office. And I hope the president’s presence here today motivates everybody, especially my leadership, to give the SALT caucus a number to which we can actually say yes.”
Mr. Lawler said while he respects Mr. Trump, he knows his district. Three of the four counties he represents are in the top 16 highest property tax counties in America and a $30,000 cap to cover both property and income taxes “is insufficient,” he said.
Mr. Garbarino said the bill will not pass without a higher SALT cap, which he noted is only one of several outstanding issues that could derail the bill.
“If they put the bill on the floor as is, I think there’s a lot of no votes,” he said.
The president did not ease concerns because he didn’t get into specifics, Mr. Garbarino said.
“It really was just a morale [boost], like we need to get this done,” he said. “The best argument he made about getting the bill passed was the debt ceiling issue.”
The Treasury Department has said the debt ceiling needs to be raised by August to prevent the government from defaulting on its borrowing obligations. The bill includes a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit, which may only last through the 2026 midterm elections.
Mr. Trump again made an appeal for Republicans to consider a greater increase that will last through the duration of his presidency. There did not appear to be much support for that, especially among fiscal hawks.
“The debt ceiling is either going to be at $4 or $5 trillion,” Mr. Harris said. “I think you lose some votes if you go beyond that.”
Although Mr. Trump did not shore up enough support for the bill, GOP leaders believed his presence had an impact.
“We had an epic time on the hill,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said. “ We’re on the verge of making history here and everybody feels it.”
Mr. Johnson complimented Mr. Trump for being “willing to roll his sleeves up and come stand in the trenches” and said he remained confident that Republicans would be able to “tie up loose ends” needed to pass the bill.
“We are right on track to deliver, and that is what you’ll see this House do this week,” he said.
• Mallory Wilson contributed to this report.
