At a fundraiser for House Republicans Tuesday night, he told GOP holdouts to “close your eyes and get there.” Earlier in the day, he met with some of them at the White House, urging them to back the budget resolution adopted by the Senate Saturday.
But more than a dozen members have balked at the low level of spending cuts in the Senate resolution — just about $4 billion — compared with the nearly $1.5 trillion in cuts in the House version. The budget resolution serves as a blueprint for implementing Mr. Trump’s border security, defense, energy and tax priorities.
“They have to do this. They have to get there,” Mr. Trump said at the House GOP campaign arm’s fundraising dinner, adding that he had a great meeting with some of the holdouts, but “just in case there are a couple of Republicans out there — you just got to get there. Close your eyes and get there. It’s a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding.”
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The president criticized Democrats on their policies, but admired the fact that “they always vote in unison,” saying, “you don’t see somebody that’s holding up.”
“One little thing the Republican Party has to do is get together and damn vote,” Mr. Trump said, adding that individual lawmakers may not get “every little ounce — it doesn’t work that way.”
Mr. Trump, who’s played a key role in shepherding the House GOP on legislation in recent months, promised a “massive victory” in the 2026 midterm elections if Republicans follow through on the budget resolution and enact his agenda more broadly. He argued “they will not be able to even touch your seat,” and he predicted they’d pick up “40, 50, or even 60” seats in the House, an outcome that would defy conventional political dynamics, with the party in control of the White House often losing control of the House in the midterms.
“If we don’t get it done because of stupidity or a couple of people that want to show how great they are, you just have to laugh at them or smile at them or cry right in their face,” the president continued.
On Wednesday morning, as the House Rules Committee prepared to consider the budget resolution, with a possible floor vote later in the day, the president posted on Truth Social to coax the conference to fall in line.
“Republicans, it is more important now, than ever, that we pass THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,” he said. “The USA will Soar like never before!!!”
The dynamic comes as the congressional leaders have pushed to get the budget plan adopted this week before they leave town for a two-week recess. Adopting the budget resolution marks the first step in the reconciliation process, a maneuver that enables Congress to bypass the 60-vote threshold required to advance most legislation in the Senate and pass the measure with a simple majority. It will allow Republicans to approve the legislation funding the president’s agenda without support from Democrats.
After Republicans in the House and Senate had forged ahead on their own budget blueprints earlier this year, the Senate on Saturday adopted the compromise resolution the House is now considering. And while GOP leaders came together on the path forward in recent weeks, the approach has frustrated many House Republicans.
The Senate set relatively low minimum floors for spending cuts for several committees, at just about $4 billion dollars, though they expect to find far more. At the same time, it allows for House plans to cut at least $1.5 trillion in spending. On top of that, the Senate-adopted plan relies on a budget scoring method known as “current policy,” which assumes that continuing the expiring current policies will incur no cost. Under that baseline, the $3.8 trillion it would cost to extend the Trump tax cuts would not be counted.
The Trump tax cuts were originally passed in 2017 using a “current law” baseline, and they were set to expire this year. This scoring method, which was also used in the House budget resolution, means that the $3.8 trillion cost to extend the tax cuts is counted as new spending.
Fiscal hawks have criticized the Senate-backed plan, including Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican, who told reporters Tuesday that “there’s no way” the House adopts it at this point. Burlison said he could be convinced by a guarantee that the Senate will make deeper spending cuts, calling the levels currently outlined in the resolution “anemic” and “a joke.”
GOP Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, when asked if he’d consider backing the measure if he had assurances on spending cuts from the president, told reporters he would have to “see some product from the Senate that actually shows that they’re serious about cutting.”
Crane called the pressure from House GOP leadership to fall in line on the resolution to avoid jeopardizing the president’s agenda “nonsense.”
“I think it’s just another tactic to try and pressure us into the status quo,” he added.
During the House Rules Committee hearing on the resolution Wednesday, House Budget Committee chairman Jodey Arrington, a Texas Republican, said he has “concerns” about the Senate’s resolution guiding the reconciliation process, and didn’t say how he’d vote.
Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, reiterated during the meeting that “the math still doesn’t math.”
“The Senate budget is all tax cuts and no spending cuts,” Roy said, adding that he doesn’t trust a promise from the Senate to cut spending.
Roy said his message to the Senate and House GOP leaders, along with the White House, is to “come show me the math.”
“I will not vote for this bill,” Roy said. “Because it is not responsible.”
contributed to this report.
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