President Trump on Tuesday pressured House Republicans to unify around a wide-ranging bill to deliver his domestic agenda, making a visit to Capitol Hill to urge his fractious members to overcome divisions that could sink the package.
Joining Republicans at their weekly closed-door meeting, Mr. Trump pushed lawmakers to drop their reservations about the legislation and embrace the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which they hope to bring to a vote by the end of the week.
As Speaker Mike Johnson hunts for the votes to pass the measure, the president made it clear that he saw the package as a test of loyalty to him, saying he had been a “cheerleader” for the party, and warning that any holdouts “wouldn’t be a Republican much longer.”
But the entreaties appeared to do little to resolve the rifts that have plagued the measure for weeks. Many Republicans emerged from the session with Mr. Trump saying they still were not sold, and wanted further changes before they could back the bill.
“The president, I don’t think, convinced enough people that the bill is adequate the way that it is,” Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters as he left the meeting. Mr. Harris said Republicans were “still a long way’s away — but we can get there.”
Several Republican factions have expressed concern about the details of the sprawling bill, which would extend the 2017 tax cuts and eliminate taxes on tips and overtime pay; raise spending on the military and immigration enforcement; and cut Medicaid, food stamps, education and subsidies for clean energy to pay for some of it.
Behind closed doors, Mr. Trump addressed each of the factions in turn, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting, lavishing praise on some Republicans and scorning others who have withheld their support for the legislation.
Those singled out included Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a libertarian who opposes the bill because it is projected to add trillions of dollars to the deficit, and Representative Mike Lawler of New York, a more moderate lawmaker from a politically competitive district who wants bigger state and local tax deductions.
Mr. Trump also scolded a bloc of conservative Republicans who have refused to back the bill because it does not include structural changes to Medicaid that would result in deeper cuts. Using profanity-laden language, Mr. Trump warned that Republicans shouldn’t mess “around with Medicaid.”
“He said, ‘Don’t cut Medicaid — just shut up about it,’” Mr. Massie said. “He said, ‘You can go after waste, fraud and abuse — that’s it; stop there.’ He was talking to the Freedom Caucus about that.”
To Republicans from high-tax states who are holding out for a substantially higher limit on the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, Mr. Massie quoted the president as saying: “Quit talking about SALT. Don’t ask for any more.”
Mr. Trump has previously served as Mr. Johnson’s most powerful tool to get restive lawmakers in line on tough votes. It has been common for holdouts on matters of major import — the election of the speaker, the budget blueprint laying out the spending targets for the domestic policy bill — to cave after receiving a well-timed call from the president.
But his pleas on Tuesday did not seem to yield many converts, and in some cases may have further alienated holdouts.
Mr. Trump’s comments on Medicaid, in particular rankled conservatives who have been lobbying for fundamental changes to the program. He told reporters as he entered the closed-door meeting that the legislation would not cut any Medicaid benefits and the reductions it did make were largely insignificant.
“We are not doing any cutting of anything meaningful,” he said. “The only thing we’re cutting is waste, fraud and abuse. With Medicaid — waste, fraud and abuse.”
The legislation, as currently written, is predicted to result in at least 8.6 million Americans becoming uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Republican leaders omitted two of the most aggressive options they had considered to cut Medicaid, bowing to Mr. Trump’s stated opposition and to more moderate Republicans, mostly from politically competitive districts, who said they could not accept such reductions.
Representative Eric Burlison, Republican of Missouri and a member of the Freedom Caucus, said it was “inappropriate” for Republicans to say that they “aren’t going to touch” Medicaid — a phrase that Mr. Trump has used — and then “leave all that fraud in the system.” He suggested that provider taxes, which states use to offset their portion of the cost of Medicaid, were a form of “fraud” that he would want to eliminate.
Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona said he still wanted more spending cuts.
“There is a lot in our federal government that gives us room to reduce,” he said. “And we want to get as balanced as we possibly can.”
The president also appeared to have flipped his position on SALT deductions, the amount of state and local taxes that can be written off on federal tax returns, which have emerged as a key sticking point. When asked about the Republican holdouts who want to see the limit on those deductions substantially increased, Mr. Trump declared that doing so would benefit only Democratic governors in high-tax states like Illinois and California.
Mr. Trump signed the original $10,000 cap into law in 2017, and indicated on the campaign trail that he would support eliminating or raising it further. The bill would triple the cap to $30,000, but several Republicans from high-tax states have threatened to withhold their support for the measure unless it rises even more.
Mr. Lawler said the current offer on the table was “insufficient.”
“We will continue the dialogue with leadership, but as it stands right now, I do not support the bill,” he said.
White House officials regard passage of the domestic policy legislation as critical to delivering on Mr. Trump’s agenda and campaign promises, including tax cuts and stricter border enforcement. They view those policies as central to the president’s decisive victory in the election, as well as Republican control of Congress.
“I think we have unbelievable unity,” Mr. Trump said at the Capitol after leaving the meeting. “I think we’re going to get everything we want. And I think we’re going to have a great victory.”
Erica L. Green contributed reporting.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
Maya C. Miller covers Congress as part of the Times Newsroom Fellowship, a program for journalists early in their careers. She is based in Washington.
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