President Trump tore into “grandstanders” in the House Republican conference Tuesday who he said are threatening to derail passage of his agenda-setting One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The president singled out libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has opposed every procedural move to advance the megabill, during a morning visit to the Capitol.
“I don’t think Thomas Massie understands government. I think he’s a grandstander and I think he should be voted out of office,” Trump told reporters ahead of a meeting with House Republicans as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) looked on.
President Trump has criticized “grandstanders” who he says threaten to derail his agenda-setting One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Getty ImagesMoments before his broadside, Trump had insisted that the Republican Party remains unified despite the drama over what is meant to be its signature legislative achievement of the year.
“It’s not a question of holdouts, we have a tremendously unified party,” the president added. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a party like this. There are some people that want a couple of things that maybe I don’t like or they’re not going to get.”
Trump did acknowledge that Republican lawmakers have “gotta make a couple of tweaks” to the bill before a possible vote on final passage.
Johnson is hoping to get the megabill through the House by the end of the week, but is grappling with satisfying all 220 members of his conference and can only afford three defections if the full conference votes.
“I don’t think there’s anybody that’s more well-suited to be speaker of the House,” Trump added of Johnson, describing himself as a “big fan” of the Louisianan.
The legislation includes an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime pay, and more spending on defense and border security.
Trump called out libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie, who has opposed every procedural move to advance the bill. APA handful of moderate and conservative Republicans have been hung up on five key issues: work requirements for Medicaid, adjustments to the federal government’s obligations in Medicaid, green energy subsidies in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, the impact on the deficit and the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap.
“We’re not doing any cutting of anything meaningful,” Trump said of the Medicaid reform in the megabill. “The only thing we’re cutting is waste, fraud and abuse.”
Trump also briefly addressed concerns about SALT, which has been a key sticking point for blue-state Republicans. The SALT cap currently sits at $10,000 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would raise that to $30,000 for taxable incomes under $400,000.
But Republicans from deep blue states have called that woefully insufficient and threatened to vote against the massive bill if that doesn’t change.
“We don’t want to benefit Democrat governors,although I would do that if it made it better, ” Trump cautioned, adding: “We want to benefit Republicans because they are the ones that are going to Make America Great Again. Democrats are destroying our country.”
Trump’s presence on Capitol Hill comes as part of a pressure campaign by GOP leadership to get his marquee bill across the finish line.
Leadership planned a 1 a.m. Wednesday markup of the bill by the House Rules Committee, its next stop, and have threatened to keep the lower chamber in session through Memorial Day weekend, if needed, to get the bill through.
Should the bill clear the House, it will then have to survive the Senate before arriving at Trump’s desk.
