Trump pressures House Republican holdouts as reconciliation talks intensify



President Donald Trump made a much-needed appearance on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning as more and more House Republicans turn on the "big, beautiful bill."

Trump met with the House Republican conference alongside Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has been working around the clock to make sure reconciliation can pass. But with just two Republican votes to spare and multiple unresolved policy negotiations, the fate of the bill still remains in the balance.

'Anybody that didn't support it, as a Republican, I would consider a fool.'

RELATED: Fiscal hawks send warning as 'big, beautiful bill' clears high-stakes vote: 'We have to do more to deliver'

POTUS gaggles with reporters after meeting with House Rs on reconciliation.

Trump says “anybody that didn’t support it, as a Republican, I would consider to be a fool.”

Several House Rs remained a “no” after the meeting.@theblaze pic.twitter.com/SdV3K5x9mZ
— Rebeka Zeljko (@rebekazeljko) May 20, 2025

During the meeting, Trump made it clear that he was losing his patience with Republican defectors and even suggested they should be primaried. Trump told members not to let SALT negotiations get in the way of reconciliation, even calling out Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York during the meeting.

Lawler notably rejected Johnson's latest — and very generous — offer to increase the state and local tax deduction cap to $40,000, which is a $10,000 increase from the originally proposed cap.

Trump also called out fiscal hawks, specifically Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has maintained that he won't vote for the bill. However, Massie was not alone, with multiple House Republicans saying their views on the bill have not changed.

"Anybody that didn't support it, as a Republican, I would consider a fool," Trump told reporters after the meeting. "It's a great bill for America."

RELATED: Why the GOP is so frustrated trying to negotiate with the ‘SALT Caucus’

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

At the same time, House Freedom Caucus members, like Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Andy Harris of Maryland, still weren't persuaded by the president.

"We all are here to advance the agenda that the President ran on and that we all ran on," Roy said following the meeting. "I don't think the bill is exactly where it needs to be, yet. We need to extend the Trump tax cuts, but we also need to deliver on the spending restraint ... I think Congress can do a better job."

"The president, I don't think, convinced enough people that the bill is adequate, the way it is," Harris said. "President called for eliminating waste, fraud, abuse in Medicaid, and we have not eliminated waste, fraud, and abuse."

RELATED: Exclusive: Why Chip Roy can't support the 'big, beautiful bill': 'The swamp does what the swamp does'

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Johnson made progress with fiscal conservatives over the weekend when the bill passed through the Budget Committee Sunday night after initially failing a vote on Friday. Leading up to the vote, Johnson met with the Republican holdouts and floated a 2026 start date for Medicaid work requirements rather than the original 2029 implementation date. As a result, four Republicans, including Roy, voted "present" and allowed the bill to advance.

Trump addressed Medicaid during the meeting, telling members not to "f*** around" with the program with the exception of mitigating fraud, waste, and abuse.

"The only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud, and abuse," Trump said. "We're not changing Medicaid, and we're not changing Medicare, and we're not changing Social Security.”

Although Republican defectors seem to be digging their heels in, Trump remained optimistic about the future of his bill.

"I think we're in good shape," Trump told reporters. "This was a meeting of love. There is great unity in that room."

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Exclusive: Why Chip Roy can't support the 'big, beautiful bill': 'The swamp does what the swamp does'



As reconciliation talks ramp up, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is doing what he can to reel in Republican defectors.

Johnson can afford to lose only three Republican votes and still get reconciliation out the door, which is shaping up to be a tall task as more and more Republicans take issue with different aspects of the "big, beautiful bill." Among them is Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who outlined his grievances in an exclusive interview with Blaze News.

'I didn't come here to perpetuate a broken system. I understand that we have a thin majority, but we should deliver.'

"Reconciliation is all about balancing our current priorities to make sure that our spending and our tax policy results in something that could be remotely described as deficit-neutral or reducing the deficit," Roy told Blaze News. "So that's kind of the first, you know, measure of whether you're going to do something successfully or not."

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

RELATED: Big, beautiful bill advances after 18-hour markup marathon while SALT talks go south

As Roy noted, codifying President Donald Trump's campaign promises is the unofficial measure of success on the Hill. While Trump himself has greenlit 151 executive orders as of this writing, only five bills from Congress have actually been signed into law.

"We need to deliver on the tax policy that President Trump ran on, and that would extend what he did in 2017," Roy added. "We need to deliver on spending restraint. We need to deliver on the priorities that the American people sent us here to deliver on."

"The problem is the swamp does what the swamp does," Roy told Blaze News.

Although reconciliation covers some of the MAGA mandate, Roy says it is still too flawed in its current state for him to throw his support behind the bill.

'It's a broken system, and this bill doesn't make it better,' Roy added. 'It frankly, arguably, makes it worse.'

"The problem is we've got a flawed bill. That's the bottom line," Roy added. "It has some good tax policy and some not-so-good tax policy. Some of it is not extended as it should be. We've got some good spending restraint and some bad spending policy."

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

RELATED: SALT sellouts: GOP dumps red-state voters for New York Democrats

Roy used the proposed Medicaid reforms as a case study. One tool Republicans have used to trim down Medicaid costs and uproot fraud has been to enforce work requirements so that fewer people are able to take advantage of the system, allowing vulnerable and disabled people Medicaid was intended for to have access to the resources they need.

But as Roy pointed out, these so-called reforms have flaws of their own.

"They put the work requirements in, and they said, 'Oh, we've got work requirements,' but they don't take place until 2029, after the Trump presidency," Roy told Blaze News. "They have waivers to the work requirements even when they kick in in 2029. They do not address all the ridiculous federal funding of certain states at the expense of other states."

"It's a broken system, and this bill doesn't make it better," Roy added. "It frankly, arguably, makes it worse."

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

RELATED: House Republicans to hike up Harvard endowment tax in reconciliation

Roy said that unless the bill was significantly amended to rein in spending and actually reform Medicaid, he wouldn't be able to support it.

"It has to be amended," Roy told Blaze News. "I'm not going to be able to support it as it's currently drafted, and those amendments are going to need to be, you know, relatively significant."

"I didn't come here to perpetuate a broken system," Roy added. "I understand that we have a thin majority, but we should deliver."

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Big, beautiful bill advances after 18-hour markup marathon while SALT talks go south



The House's big, beautiful bill passed through the Ways and Means Committee Wednesday morning along party lines after an 18-hour overnight markup. While this is a win for House Republicans, additional roadblocks appeared after negotiations with SALT Caucus members took a turn for the worse.

The SALT Caucus' primary advocacy focuses on increasing and even eliminating the federal deduction cap on state and local taxes. The deduction was capped at $10,000 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. While codifying many of President Donald Trump's campaign promises, like no tax on tips and overtime, the GOP tax bill also raises the SALT cap to $30,000.

'They can sit and negotiate with themselves all they want, but there will be no changes unless I and the committee agree.'

Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, the only SALT Caucus member who sits on Ways and Means, was also the only SALT Caucus member who supported the committee bill.

RELATED: House Republicans to hike up Harvard endowment tax in reconciliation

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

"These provisions will save individuals and families thousands of dollars annually, and with today's passage out of committee, we are a step closer to delivering relief," Malliotakis said.

However, other SALT Caucus members continue to dig their heels in as the tension ramps up behind closed doors.

During a late-night meeting with leadership and SALT Caucus members, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) attempted to negotiate a deal with Republicans in the SALT Caucus, all of whom represent blue states. The negotiations went south after the members booted Malliotakis from the meeting even though she is the only member with direct influence on tax policy.

“As the only SALT Caucus member on Ways and Means, all I know is they can sit and negotiate with themselves all they want, but there will be no changes unless I and the committee agree," Malliotakis said.

RELATED: Exclusive: House Republicans debunk Medicaid misconceptions as reconciliation talks resume

Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Johnson, who initially went into the meeting hoping to strike a deal that night, later said he expects negotiations to continue through the weekend.

"This bill, as written, with a $30,000 cap for those making under $400,000, is just woefully inadequate," Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York said Wednesday of the bill. "So no, this does not have my support, it will not have my support, and if this bill comes to the floor for a vote, I will vote no."

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White House official addresses criticism of Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill’



President Donald Trump has promised Americans he’ll be teaming up with congressional Republicans to pass a “big, beautiful bill” that’s chock full of campaign promises.

Of those campaign promises, “no tax on tips,” “no tax on overtime,” and major spending cuts stand out. However, the bill’s progress is dragging on — and the country is beginning to wonder what’s really going on.

Russell Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, has some answers.

“I want to talk to you about the Republicans, because I believe they’re kind of a waste of space. They are not doing the things that I think the president promised, and that is, cut the budget and cut regulation in dramatic ways,” Glenn Beck tells Vought on “The Glenn Beck Program.”


“We’re working through it right now. The House, they’re trying to meet their instructions. They basically passed a budget that would have $1.5 trillion in savings and about $4.5 trillion in tax relief, and they are working through to get a bill that can pass,” Vought explains.

“So when are we expecting this to be voted on and possibly go through?” Glenn asks.

“My hope is next week that they pass it out of committee, the two big committees of ways and means and energy and commerce, and then go to budget and set up a vote thereafter on the house floor. That’s our hope, that’s what we’re working towards,” Vought says.

“We’re going to move as much as we can within the parameters of the law and the Constitution, we’re going to move as fast and aggressively as possible to change the reality on the ground with reductions in force, with reorganizations, with doing programmatic review of spending that doesn’t have to go out through the use of recisions,” he continues.

“There’s a whole set of tools in our box that we’re going to use aggressively to get Congress moving in our direction, because we cannot be in a normal situation as an administration where we just kind of send bills up and wait on them,” he adds.

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Trump sends mixed signals on possible tax hike



President Donald Trump allegedly urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) during a phone call Wednesday to raise the top tax rate, albeit at a much higher income level, and close the carried interest loophole amid Republican lawmakers' efforts to finalize their Trump agenda bill.

The president indicated a change of mind Friday morning, however, suggesting on Truth Social that "Republicans should probably not do it."

Last month, Trump and Johnson shot down the idea of a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans.

The president said in his April 22 interview with Time magazine, "I certainly don't mind having a tax increase."

'Our party is the group that stands against that traditionally.'

"I actually love the concept," continued Trump, "but I don't want it to be used against me politically, because I've seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news."

The following day, Trump came out against the idea more forcefully, telling reporters in the Oval Office that the idea of a tax hike was "very disruptive," as it might prompt wealthy individuals to flee the country, reported Politico.

"You know, the old days, they left states. They go from one state to the other. Now with transportation so quick and so easy, they leave countries. You lose a lot of money if you do that," said Trump.

Johnson similarly came out swinging against a tax hike on April 23, telling "The Will Cain Show" last month, "We have been working against that idea. I'm not in favor of raising the tax rates because our party is the group that stands against that traditionally."

A number of provisions enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 are set to expire in December. Unless lawmakers extend the cuts, tax brackets will revert back to pre-TCJA levels. Accordingly the top individual, estate, and income tax bracket would return to 39.6% from the current rate of 37%.

One unnamed Republican source said to be familiar with Trump's Wednesday call with Johnson told NBC News that the president was considering allowing the rate to revert to 39.6% "to protect Medicaid and help pay for middle- and working-class tax cuts."

Multiple sources suggested to The Hill that while the White House advocated for allowing the top marginal income tax rate cut to expire, the administration wanted to see the 2017 cuts extended for Americans in the lower tax brackets. While the top income bracket starts this year at $626,350 per individual, the New York Times indicated the proposed restoration of the previous top rate would apply to individuals earning over $2.5 million annually.

The Hill noted that a spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee declined to comment on any policy specifics under consideration, and the White House did not return the outlet's request for comment.

'I'm OK if they do!'

When asked about the proposed tax income increase on the upper brackets, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told "The Hugh Hewitt Show" Thursday that he was "not excited about the proposal but I have to say there are a number of people in both the House and the Senate who are."

Crapo added, "If the president weighs in in favor of it, then that's going to be a big factor that we have to take into consideration."

Trump noted in a social media post on Friday, "The problem with even a 'TINY' tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, 'Read my lips,' the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election."

"NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election!" continued Trump. "In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I'm OK if they do!"

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Tariffs Won’t Solve Washington’s Biggest Problem: Overspending

The ructions in financial markets over the past few weeks and Washington’s dependence on foreign entities to keep funding our (over) spending illustrate why lawmakers need to do something to get our fiscal house in order.
Trump’s Tariff Trap: Will Tax Cuts Save the Economy? | Ep 1050
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Trump’s Tariff Trap: Will Tax Cuts Save the Economy? | Ep 1050

State GOP Lawmakers Move To Slice Taxes While Dems Raise Theirs

State Republicans have slashed income taxes

Why people are 'missing the point' on Trump's tariffs



The mainstream media have been in a state of doom and gloom over President Trump’s tariffs, but as usual, they’re missing the point.

And while the mainstream media fearmonger over the tariffs, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts has faith that Trump’s plan will work.

“Just to be really objective about this, there will be an economic quarter or two where things are choppy. The treasury secretary has said as much, because what Trump is trying to do is reset the world economic order,” Roberts tells Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”


“If I had to guess, as he gets into this negotiation with other countries and they recalibrate, because the administration is so good, they’re going to focus on the reciprocity part of this,” he continues, adding that alongside “deregulation, cutting the budget” and “making tax cuts” will get “America back on its feet.”

“There needs to be a zealous focus, a real target, on the worst abusers,” he says, noting that China and the European Union are among these abusers.

“The EU is the biggest protectionist racket in history, and they’re telling us we can’t place a tariff on them. That’s the kind of reset that Trump is doing. He deserves much more credit for it than he’s getting,” Roberts explains.

BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden is in full agreement.

“It’s just absolutely typical. Trump does something, the press loses their mind over it, and the problem is they’ve done this so much that people just don’t care any more,” Marsden says, adding, “If you just have reciprocal tariffs, then it’s very easy to say, ‘Well, hang on a second, the messaging is very easy. You have this, we have this,’ it’s just very simple.”

“But I think that Americans know now that we have to go through this, because we were being bled dry. We were going to go bankrupt, the country faced a very, very uphill battle to prosperity,” he continues.

“We know that we have to have some discomfort, and I think the majority of Americans that voted Trump in, we knew we were going to get that,” he adds.

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Will Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs restore American manufacturing?



President Donald Trump has declared April 2, 2025, “Liberation Day” — but many Americans are worried that his reciprocal tariff plan will not liberate them but only make life harder.

While economist Stephen Moore can see why they’d be afraid, he also understands why they shouldn’t be.

“Trump does have a very important point,” Moore tells Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.” “Which is that a lot of people don’t understand that we are the lowest-tariff country in the world right now, among all the major trading partners.”

“What Trump is simply saying is it’s not a level playing field. It’s not fair. These countries are not playing by the rules, and they need to trade with the United States, so they better get their act together. They better start treating us fairly, or he’s going to hit them with these tariffs,” Moore explains.


However, there will be rising prices for Americans as a result of these tariffs.

“Short-term pain for long-term gain,” Moore says. “I’m a little worried about it, but I will say this: Trump is the single best negotiator I’ve ever met in my life, and I think in the end, he will prevail.”

Glenn is concerned but optimistic as well.

“There might be some short-term effects because we could turn the negotiating power on pretty quickly,” Glenn says. “Or is he trying to bring manufacturing back?”

“These are complicated questions, and I can’t get in Donald Trump’s mind,” Moore responds. “Let’s start with why he won this election. He won the election by winning blue-collar, middle-class voters into the Republican Party, many of whom had voted Democratic but realized that Trump was the one who really stood behind them.”

Moore believes that what Trump is doing besides tariffs reflects why he was voted in.

“For example, an article in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, didn’t get a lot of attention on the front page, was that Trump is deregulating our economy. It’s going to reduce costs for American companies by as much as a trillion dollars. Makes us very competitive,” Moore explains.

However, Glenn would like to see Trump discuss tax cuts more.

“I’m not seeing enough about cutting the regulation and also tax cuts, because if you don’t have those to go along with tariffs, this isn’t going to work,” Glenn says.

“Great minds think alike,” Moore agrees.

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