Trump urges House Republicans not to mess with Medicaid amid push to pass bill advancing his agenda: Sources
President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning turned up the heat on House Republican holdout votes endangering passage of the megabill aimed at advancing his legislative agenda, sources told ABC News.
Trump spoke to the conference as more than a dozen Republicans seek additional changes to the legislation. Without changes, there is enough opposition to defeat it as Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose three votes.
Johnson said Tuesday afternoon that he's "very confident" he can flip the GOP holdouts votes.
"We've got a number of loose ends to tie up, but they're coming together well," Johnson told reporters. "We've got some hours ahead of us to work this out, and I'm very confident we will."
Earlier, Trump used an expletive to urge House Republican conference members not to mess with Medicaid and to vote in favor of his bill Tuesday morning, sources told ABC News.
That demand comes as hard-liners push for stricter Medicaid cuts just a day or so before the massive bill -- full of a laundry list of Trump's campaign promises -- is expected to head to the floor. Johnson is aiming for a vote on Wednesday.
Another sticking point among Republican holdouts is a cap on state and local tax deductions. And sources tell ABC News that Trump told the cadre of Republicans pushing for a higher cap on the state and local tax deduction (SALT) to take the current deal on the table and "move on."
Trump urged Republicans to stick together and get the bill done -- and deliver for the American people, according to a White House official.
A White House official told ABC News that Trump is losing patience with the Republican holdouts, including the SALT Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus. The president made it clear that he wants every Republican to vote yes on the bill, the official added.
Leaving the House GOP conference meeting, Trump said the meeting went well, but pushed back against those reports that he's losing patience with Republican holdouts.
"I think it was a really great; that was a meeting of love. Let me tell you, that was love in that room. There was no shouting. I think it was a meeting of love," Trump told reporters, later adding that anyone who said he was losing patience was "a liar."
Projecting confidence, Trump said "we're going to get it done," adding that "we're ahead of schedule."
So was Trump's pressure campaign enough to move those on the fence to the yes column?
Asked if he thinks Trump moved any votes, holdout Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said "yeah, I suppose so." Still Biggs didn't commit to supporting the bill.
Fellow holdout Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said Trump "did a great job," but declined to say whether Trump changed his mind.
"If the vote were held right now, it dies a painful death," Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Other hard-liners tell ABC News that they still believe changes to the bill -- like those additional Medicaid cuts -- could still be on the table. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said he believes more "tweaks" can be made before the bill goes to the House Rules Committee at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning.
But time is running out and Trump was clear he doesn't want any more delays.
Clearing the House is just the first hurdle for the bill -- it will also have to pass muster with a Senate Republican conference that is already telegraphing that they plan to make changes.
Following Trump's visit to Capitol Hill, Johnson spent a little under half an hour behind closed doors with Senate Republicans, who say they're clear-eyed about wanting to pass Trump's legislative agenda into law as swiftly as they can. They've been working behind the scenes where they can, they've said, to be in collaboration with the House.
But Senate Republicans also made clear they have every intention of modifying the bill.
"When the House acts, and [Johnson is] quite confident that they will, then we'll have something that we will be able to put in front of our members and figure out if there are things that we need to adjust or modify or change," Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said. "And I think he fully understands and accepts that."
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., also said Johnson knows that the Senate will modify it.
"He knows we're going to make changes. He is a really smart guy, a good guy, he knows we are going to make changes," Hoeven said. "We have a lot of agreement. There are some areas we have to change because of our rules he knows that."
No matter how carefully the needle is threaded to get House moderates and hard-liners on board for a vote later this week, if the bill is retooled by the Senate it risks creating very difficult hurdles for Johnson down the road when the bill gets back to the House.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to Johnson and Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, requesting they "immediately reschedule" that 1 a.m. Rules Committee meeting.
The New York Democrat decried the legislation for what he called the "largest" cut to Medicaid and nutritional assistance in American history.
"It is deeply troubling that you would attempt to jam this legislation down the throats of the American people," Jeffries wrote in a statement to his colleagues. "What else are you hiding?"
"It is imperative that you immediately reschedule the meeting so that it may be debated in the light of day," Jeffries added. Republicans scheduled the hearing at the earliest possible hour in compliance with House rules after the Budget Committee approved the package late Sunday.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump -- flanked by Johnson -- issued a stern warning for Republicans who don't fall in line on the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," warning they could be primaried if they vote against his signature bill.
Trump emphasized that the GOP is a unified party, but also added that people aren't going to get everything they want in the bill.
"Well it's not a question of holdouts, we have a tremendously unified party. We've never had a party like this. There's some people that want a couple of things that maybe I don't like or that they're not going to get, but I think we're going to have tremendous -- not luck. We have tremendous talent," Trump said.
After the president left, Republican leaders delivered remarks but took no questions.
"Failure is simply not an option," the Johnson said. "We have to get this done."
ABC News' Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
