Trump on Capitol Hill implores divided Republicans to unify behind his
big tax cuts bill
[May 21, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO, KEVIN FREKING, LEAH ASKARINAM and JOEY
CAPPELLETTI
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump implored House Republicans at
the Capitol to drop their fights over his big tax cuts bill and get it
done, using encouraging words but also the hardened language of politics
over the multitrillion-dollar package that is at risk of collapsing
before planned votes this week.
During the more than hour-long session Tuesday, Trump warned Republicans
not to touch Medicaid with cuts, and he told New York lawmakers to end
their fight for a bigger local tax deduction, reversing his own campaign
promise. The president, heading into the meeting, called himself a
“cheerleader” for the Republican Party and praised Speaker Mike Johnson.
But he also criticized at least one of the GOP holdouts as a
“grandstander” and warned that anyone who doesn't support the bill would
be a “fool.”
“We have unbelievable unity,” Trump said as he exited. “I think we're
going to get everything we want.”
The president arrived at a pivotal moment. Negotiations are slogging
along and it's not at all clear the package, with its sweeping tax
breaks and cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs, has
the support needed from the House's slim Republican majority. Lawmakers
are also being asked to add some $350 billion to Trump's border
security, deportation and defense agenda.
Inside, he spoke privately in what one lawmaker called the president’s
“weaving” style and took questions.
The president also made it clear he’s losing patience with the various
holdout factions of the House Republicans, according to a senior White
House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the
private meeting.
But Trump himself disputed that notion as well as reports that he used
an expletive in warning not to cut Medicaid. Instead, he said afterward,
“That was a meeting of love.” He received several standing ovations,
Republicans said.
Yet it was not at all clear that Trump, who was brought in to seal the
deal, changed minds.
“We're still a long ways away,” said Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chair
of the House Freedom Caucus.
Conservatives are insisting on quicker, steeper cuts to federal programs
to offset the costs of the trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue. At
the same time, a core group of lawmakers from New York and other
high-tax states want bigger tax breaks for their voters back home.
Worries about piling onto the nation's $36 trillion debt are stark.
With House Democrats lined up against the package as a giveaway to the
wealthy at the expense of safety net programs, GOP leaders have almost
no votes to spare. A key committee hearing is set for the middle of the
night Tuesday in hopes of a House floor vote by Wednesday afternoon.
“They literally are trying to take health care away from millions of
Americans at this very moment in the dead of night," said House
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
In one surprise move, the Senate quickly approved one of Trump's top
priorities, an end to taxation on certain tipped income, without
objection from either party. The vote enables Democrats to try to claim
victory on a potentially popular provision, even though they oppose the
larger tax package. It also links them closer to Trump in ways that
could be difficult once the Senate takes up the broader debate.
Trump has been pushing hard for Republicans to unite behind the bill,
which has been uniquely shaped in his image as the president’s signature
domestic policy initiative in Congress.
Asked about one of the conservative Republicans, Rep. Thomas Massie of
Kentucky, Trump lashed out.
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President Donald Trump, right, is joined by Speaker of the House
Mike Johnson, R-La., as he arrives for a meeting with the House
Republican Conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
“I think he is a grandstander, frankly,” the president continued. “I
think he should be voted out of office.”
But Massie, a renegade who often goes it alone and wears a clock
lapel pin that tallies the nation's debt load, said afterward he's
still a no vote.
Also unmoved was Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the New York Republicans
leading the fight for a bigger state and local tax deduction, known
as SALT: “As it stands right now, I do not support the bill.
Period.”
The sprawling 1,116-page package carries Trump's title, the “ One
Big Beautiful Bill Act," as well as his campaign promises to extend
the tax breaks approved during his first term while adding new ones,
including no taxes on tips, automobile loan interest and Social
Security. There's also a higher standard deduction, of $32,000 for
joint filers, and a bigger child tax credit.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal
watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add
roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade.
Republicans criticizing the measure argued that the bill’s new
spending and tax cuts are front-loaded, while the measures to offset
the cost are back-loaded.
In particular, the conservative Republicans are looking to speed up
the new work requirements that Republicans want to enact for
able-bodied participants in Medicaid. They had been proposed to
start Jan. 1, 2029, but GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise said on
CNBC that work requirements for some Medicaid beneficiaries would
begin in early 2027.
At least 7.6 million fewer people are expected to have health
insurance under the initial Medicaid changes, the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office said last week.
Republican holdouts are also looking to more quickly halt green
energy tax breaks, which had been approved as part of the Biden-era
Inflation Reduction Act, and are now being used for renewable energy
projects across the nation.
But for every change Johnson considers to appease the hard-right
conservatives, he risks losing support from more traditional and
centrist Republicans. Many have signed on to letters protesting deep
cuts to Medicaid and the rolling back of clean energy tax credits.
The New Yorkers are fighting for a larger state and local tax
deduction beyond the bill's proposal. As it stands, the bill would
triple what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax
deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up
to $400,000 a year. They have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for
single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.
Trump, who had campaigned on fully reinstating the unlimited SALT
deduction, now appears to be satisfied with the proposed compromise,
arguing it only benefits “all the Democratic” states.
If the bill passes the House this week, it would then move to the
Senate, where Republicans are also eyeing changes.
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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Seung Min Kim and Mary
Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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