Just minutes after President Donald Trump surprised Washington by writing on Truth Social Wednesday that he prefers “one big beautiful” spending package, Sen. Lindsey Graham was on the phone, walking into a leadership meeting.
“Did you see Trump’s tweet?” Graham said on the call, as witnessed by NOTUS.
Trump’s declaration Wednesday that he prefers the House’s budget and forthcoming reconciliation bill — “unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda,” Trump wrote — is the culmination of a standoff between the two chambers.
Senate and House Republicans have been publicly feuding over how to handle Trump’s massive spending package, the marquee piece of the president’s legislative agenda, and the battle has been getting increasingly messy. (On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson traded tweets where they both suggested their chamber’s approach was best.)
But Trump drew clear lines Wednesday morning when he endorsed the House GOP’s strategy. The president said he wanted one massive tax, energy and border package rather than two, which is the plan the Senate advanced Tuesday night. And Trump is sending his deputy, Vice President JD Vance, to speak with Senate Republicans at lunch on Wednesday in an effort to ease that tension.
Regardless of Trump’s endorsement, Republican Whip John Barrasso told reporters that the Senate’s budget resolution is “on schedule.” And even if Trump has a preference, the Senate’s plan might still be the path forward.
“By the time our members get back in town, there will be a budget that’s ours to vote on that will be hard to pass and then will likely change in the Senate anyway or the Senate budget that will be easy to pass and will get us a win,” one senior House GOP aide told NOTUS.
With the House on a recess week, Johnson has been working the phones to get his members behind the plan for one bill. But Graham and Senate Republican leadership took matters into their own hands when they put their budget resolution — a slimmer measure that only includes defense, border security and energy provisions — on the floor for its first procedural vote.
Leadership in both chambers has been lobbying Trump and his aides to support their version of reconciliation, a source told NOTUS, but in the end, Trump preferred one package.
Thune told reporters that he “didn’t have any immediate conversations” with Trump prior to the post. “As they say, did not see that one coming,” Thune said.
Thune wasn’t the only one, even House members and Trump allies were surprised by Trump’s stance.
Senate Republicans gathered behind closed doors Wednesday morning in the wake of the post from Trump to discuss what’s next for their package, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) confirmed to reporters while exiting the meeting Wednesday morning.
But again, even with Trump backing the House’s “one big beautiful bill” reconciliation approach, that bigger package will be on life support when the chamber returns from recess next week.
There is a considerable gap between many in the conference on spending cuts. And the arrangement that the Freedom Caucus worked out with House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington — an ability to increase or decrease tax cuts “commensurate” with entitlement cuts — could make the package a tough sell politically for more vulnerable Republicans.
“A few on our side are overriding the Speaker, the Majority Leader, the Whip and the Chair of Ways and Means and are making the biggest tax increases in the history of our country more likely,” one House Republican told NOTUS. “Many of us are tired of a few making demands of the Speaker, and then the rest of us are having to rationalize the irrational.”
Conservatives want at least $2 trillion cut from entitlements, with Medicaid likely bearing the brunt of the reductions. But vulnerable House Republicans — and even Trump — have expressed discomfort with poor and sick people functionally paying for tax cuts that predominantly benefit the rich.
Trump even told Fox News host Sean Hannity Tuesday evening that “Medicare, Medicaid — none of that stuff is going to be touched,” unless it’s removing “illegal migrants” from the system.
And plenty of vulnerable Republicans are lining up to draw a line on those entitlement cuts.
“If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it,” freshman GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan said in a post on X. “Pennsylvania’s Eighth District chose me to advocate for them in Congress. These benefits are promises that were made to the people of NEPA and where I come from, people keep their word.”
The House GOP member who spoke to NOTUS said that Bresnahan “represents the heart of the conference,” and Rep. David Valadao, a veteran member representing a swing seat in California, told NOTUS there are “a lot of people that agree” with Bresnahan’s post.
“I think more people are going to freak out once they start to see what the cuts actually mean to their districts,” Valadao added.
An alternative method that Republicans have floated is counting the theoretical savings from Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts, but that relies on Musk actually coming up with significant reductions. And Freedom Caucus members seem to want many more cuts than whatever Musk can find.
Former chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry, told NOTUS that he would “likely not” support counting DOGE cuts toward reconciliation.
“Every 100 days, we add a trillion dollars,” Perry said of the national debt. “I don’t think DOGE is coming close to a trillion dollars.”
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Daniella Diaz and Reese Gorman are reporters at NOTUS.