Trump warns GOP dissenters to drop objections on SALT, Medicaid

Donald Trump has warned holdout Republicans they’d pay a steep political price if they stood in the way of a multi-trillion tax and spend agenda party leaders want to quickly pass.

Donald Trump speaks to the press as he arrives for a House GOP conference meeting at the US Capitol. Picture; AFP

President Trump turned the screws on holdout Republicans, warning they would pay a steep political price if they stood in the way of the multi-trillion tax and spending agenda party leaders want to quickly pass through the narrowly divided chamber.

In a closed-door meeting with the House GOP conference, the president urged fiscal conservatives to give up efforts to expand Medicaid cuts and a bloc of moderates to drop their drive for blue-state tax relief, pushing them to unite around his “one big beautiful” budget bill, according to people familiar with his comments.

“Don’t f – around with Medicaid,” he said, according to attendees. Trump’s arm-twisting came at a high-stakes moment: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) has said he wants to vote on the package as soon as Wednesday, with passage no later than the coming Memorial Day weekend. But holdout lawmakers said sticking points remained and could force changes to the bill or delays in voting despite Trump’s exhortations.

The measure funds a series of promises Trump made on the campaign trail. It would extend his 2017 tax cuts and make new ones like no taxes on tips, as well as boost border spending and repeal climate tax credits. He warned that taxes would rise for many American households if Congress fails to extend the provisions from his first term and that Republicans who opposed the bill could face primary challenges.

“What Republican would vote for that? Because they wouldn’t be a Republican much longer. They would be knocked out so fast.” Trump said to reporters before the meeting, arguing the party is united – except for “one or two grandstanders.” He took aim at one of the House Republicans opposed to the bill, saying Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) should be “voted out of office.” After the meeting, Trump said there was “great unity” in the room. “Anybody who didn’t support it as a Republican, I would consider to be a fool,” he said.

Republicans can afford to lose only a handful of votes in the House, where they have a 220-213 majority. Democrats are united in opposition, saying the proposal cuts Medicaid to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. If the measure does pass the House, Republicans would be able to bypass the usual 60-vote threshold in the GOP-led Senate by using a fast-track process called budget reconciliation.

A senior White House official said Trump made clear he is losing patience with all holdouts. The president backs work requirements for Medicaid and the exclusion of unauthorised immigrants, but doesn’t want additional changes, the official said. Further increases to the cap on state and local tax, or SALT, deductions sought by Republicans in states like New York can be tackled in a future bill, the official added.

Some Republicans weren’t sold.

“The president, I don’t think, convinced enough people that the bill is adequate, the way it is,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R., Md.), chairman of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, who has pushed for deeper cuts to Medicaid spending. “We’re still a long ways away, but we can get there. Maybe not by tomorrow, but we can get there.” “We need a little more SALT on the table to get to ‘yes,’ ” said Rep. Nick LaLota, a New York Republican.

The bill would cut taxes by nearly $4 trillion through 2034, compared with doing nothing, while generating about $1.6 trillion in spending reductions and other deficit-reducing policies. Final official estimates aren’t available, but the total deficit effect is roughly $2.7 trillion.

A group of fiscal conservatives wants deeper and faster changes to Medicaid, which serves 70 million low-income and disabled people, to limit the growth of the federal deficit. But centrists and other Republicans warn that further cuts would hurt the party’s chances of keeping the House majority in the midterm elections. On Sunday night, four conservative holdouts allowed the bill to proceed through the Budget Committee, but they said their concerns weren’t fully resolved.

Some members are pressing the idea of cutting back on the share the federal government contributes to Medicaid. Johnson has repeatedly taken that idea off the table, but spending hawks say it needs to be part of the mix, citing rising budget deficits and saying that the matching rate is unfair to states that declined to expand Medicaid to cover more low-income people, as permitted by the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

A day earlier, Johnson held a series of meetings with various factions. He met with the Republican Main Street Caucus, where people familiar with the meeting said he was in listening mode, making notes on a writing pad as his GOP members raised issues with Medicaid and energy tax issues, including about nuclear power.

Johnson then jetted to another meeting, largely composed of House Freedom Caucus members and centrists, where they tried to iron out various sticking points, according to people familiar with this meeting. Johnson also met with the New York Republicans insisting on an increase in the SALT cap.

Inside the room Tuesday, Trump pushed Republicans holding out for better terms on SALT to accept the latest offer from Johnson, according to people in the room. The initial GOP proposal called for raising the cap to $30,000 from $10,000, and Johnson made another proposal on Monday night, which a GOP aide said would bump up the limit on the deduction to $40,000. Trump called out Rep. Mike Lawler of New York specifically on the matter, the people said, saying he should drop it.

Lawler said he was sticking to his demands.

“The president can say whatever he wants, and I respect him,” said Lawler. “But the fact is, I certainly understand my district,” he said, noting that he won re-election even as Trump lost his district in 2024 to Democrat Kamala Harris.

Massie, who has regularly defied party leaders in recent years, predicted conservative and blue-state colleagues would ultimately cave on their demands and vote for the bill due to Trump’s pressure.

“I mean, he’s pretty persuasive. He’s very likeable. He tells good stories,” Massie said.

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