Trump Endorses House Budget Plan With Medicaid Cuts

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump has finally picked a side in the standoff between House and Senate Republicans over how best to enact his agenda.

House Republicans want to pass one big bill, while Senate Republicans, led by their budget chair Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have been laying the groundwork for two or more bills.

After having hemmed and hawed from the sidelines, Trump announced in a social media post Wednesday he favors the House approach, which would combine border security, military funding and a sweeping package of tax cuts partially offset with major spending cuts ― including to Medicaid, a program Trump suggested this week he wouldn’t touch.

“The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM,” Trump wrote, “however, unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it!”

The Senate started the process Tuesday evening of passing a budget resolution for a smaller initial bill that would provide billions for border security and the military, omitting the more complicated tax provisions. Trump apparently decided against telling Senate Republicans to stand down.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Wednesday morning he “didn’t see that one coming” but that Senate Republicans would continue with their two-bill approach.

“Hopefully, in the end, we’ll be able, whether it’s one bill or two bills, to get all the things that the president’s outlined as objectives across the finish line,” Thune said at a later press conference.

Graham himself said last week that he, too, would prefer to pass a single bill that includes everything Trump wants: border security, military funding and a costly extension of tax cuts. The problem, Graham said, is that House Republicans have been slow to coalesce on a plan while immigration officials are clamoring for more resources.

“I’m a huge fan and nothing would please me more than one big beautiful bill,” Graham said. “To my friends in the House, we’re moving because we have to. I wish you the best. I want one big beautiful bill, but I cannot, and I will not, go back to South Carolina and justify not supporting the president’s immigration plan. We’re not building a wall, folks. We’re hitting a wall. They need the money and they need it now.”

Last month during a visit to the Capitol, Trump said it didn’t matter whether Republicans did one bill or two.

“Whether it’s one bill or two bills, it’s going to get done one way or the other,” Trump said then. “I think there’s a lot of talk about two and there’s a lot of talk about one, but it doesn’t matter.”

House Republicans trumpeted Trump’s statement on Wednesday.

“From the outset of this process, we sought to ensure participation from every member of our conference and make clear that this resolution reflects our collective commitment to enacting the President’s full agenda – not just a part of it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a joint statement with other senior House Republicans.

Senate Republicans worry their House counterparts will take too long to firm up their plan. The House Budget Committee approved a budget outline last week, but there are major questions among House Republicans themselves about the tax and spending cuts. One GOP lawmaker, for instance, has said he would vote against the bill if it “guts” Medicaid, even though the outline calls for Medicaid cuts as a major offset for the tax cuts.

In an interview that aired Tuesday, Trump suggested Medicaid cuts would be off the table.

“Social Security won’t be touched, other than if there’s fraud or something. It’s going to be strengthened,” Trump told Sean Hannity. “Medicare, Medicaid — none of that stuff is going to be touched. Now, if there are illegal migrants in the system, we’re going to get them out.”

Trump explained in his Wednesday post that, ultimately, both the House and Senate have to adopt the same budget outline before they can fill in the actual policy details and send a bill to the president’s desk.

“We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL,’” Trump wrote. “It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Senate Republicans emerged from a lunch meeting with Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday saying they hadn’t been discouraged from proceeding with their budget plan even though the president had severely undercut them.

“[Vance] said the president preferred one bill, but they weren’t discouraging any other activity,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told HuffPost.

But not every senator seemed fully on board with the plan, which will include a series of votes this week on Democratic amendments intended to embarrass Republicans, all for a budget strategy that the president has rejected.

“It just seems a little bizarre to me. I can’t quite figure it out,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told reporters. “I’m a little baffled as to what we’re doing.”