President Donald Trump threw his support on Wednesday behind the House’s budget blueprint — throwing a curveball into the Senate’s plan to vote on a competing version this week.
Trump, in a Truth Social post, said both chambers are “doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together” but added that the House budget was preferable because it would fold all of his priorities together instead of separating them into two bills like the Senate GOP plan would.
“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.’ It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said in the post.
Trump’s announcement comes the day after Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced that the Senate would take up its budget framework this week. Under the Senate GOP’s plan, Republicans will first try to pass a border, energy and defense bill and then come back later this year and try to pass a separate bill on tax cuts.
The House budget plan would package all of those together into one sweeping bill. Speaker Mike Johnson plans to bring the measure to the floor next week but is still trying to win over a number of holdouts.
Johnson quickly celebrated Trump’s endorsement in an X post Wednesday morning saying Trump “is right!”
“House Republicans are working to deliver President Trump’s FULL agenda – not just a small part of it,” the speaker wrote, calling on House Republicans to “get it done.”
Amid the elation, real obstacles remain for House leaders — not least of which is making the arithmetic of their plan work. A handful of swing-district holdouts are wary of the major cuts to safety-net programs sketched out in the House budget framework, they have been emboldened by Trump’s skeptical comments about slashing Medicaid in particular.
Trump reiterated his discomfort with deep health care cuts in a Fox News interview Thuesday night where he said, “Medicare, Medicaid — none of that stuff is going to be touched,” aside from efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.
“I’d like for someone in leadership to explain how they get the $880 billion and the additional necessary $500 billion for tax cuts while still fulfilling the President’s promise to not cut Medicaid,” said one House Republican after Trump backed Johnson’s plan Wednesday. The member was granted anonymity to candidly react to the new developments.
Thune, meanwhile, met with a group of Senate Republicans in his office to discuss the path forward shortly after Trump posted his endorsement of the House plan.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) declined to comment on what comes next for the Senate’s plan. Asked if they were discussing Trump’s post, she said, “I think that’s safe to say.”
