After a revolving cast of House Republicans met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, lawmakers came away with no promises but a number of impressions — including on Trump’s support for tying California disaster aid to raising the debt ceiling, lifting the deduction cap on state and local taxes and his continued push for one reconciliation bill.
On Friday, it was the House Freedom Caucus which made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, having what one member described as a “relationship building” dinner with Trump and Elon Musk.
This member said the group discussed reconciliation but there were no firm decisions.
Another Freedom Caucus member in attendance, Rep. Ralph Norman, said the meeting was a “great” exchange of ideas. He added that they discussed “plans for passing the Trump agenda immediately after President Trump takes office.”
Trump will need a close relationship with the GOP hardliners, as the Freedom Caucus has shown over the last decade that it’s the faction in the House most comfortable with opposing its party’s leadership, including, at times, Trump.
While the Freedom Caucus’ meeting seemed to be networking more than anything else, Trump’s meeting on Saturday was “policy driven,” according to two members in attendance.
On Saturday, the so-called SALT Caucus joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss raising the tax deduction cap that Trump and Republicans instituted in 2017 during their tax overhaul.
One source present for the meeting said Trump acknowledged he was the one who put the current cap in place, claiming he was unaware of just how much blowback he would incur for the cap, which limited tax filers to only deducting $10,000 in state and local taxes on their federal returns, even if they pay more than that to local governments. Many wealthy homeowners — especially in areas like New York, New Jersey, California and D.C. — pay more than $10,000 in property taxes.
Some members of the SALT Caucus have been very clear: They won’t vote for any tax bill that doesn’t raise the limit. And in a narrow majority like the current one in the House, Trump can’t afford to lose these lawmakers.
“I’ve said for a couple of years I wouldn’t vote for any omnibus tax bill that doesn’t have a reasonable fix to SALT,” Rep. Nick LaLota told NOTUS ahead of the meeting with Trump.
After the meeting, one of the sources told NOTUS that Trump grasps the unlikelihood of passing a tax cut without raising the SALT cap.
“He understands that,” one of the members said.
“This was an initial conversation,” the member told NOTUS. “Obviously, we’re going to work through the tax bill in totality, but this was an initial conversation, and reiterating his support for lifting the cap.”
A source familiar with the conversation added that there was no agreement on what a SALT change should look like and said Trump expressed interest in reviewing options for an adjustment.
While the main focus of the meeting was SALT, one of the members also told NOTUS they discussed reconciliation, the California wildfires and congestion pricing in New York.
On Sunday, Trump met with a large group of House Republicans that spanned the ideological spectrum. There were leadership-aligned members, like Reps. Dusty Johnson and Austin Scott, and hardline MAGA supporters like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to a photo shared online.
Multiple sources described this meeting as more of a listening session focused mostly on whether one or two reconciliation packages would be best.
“It was a flowing discussion with members weighing in on 1 or 2 bills and why,” one of the members at the meeting texted NOTUS. “And he just listened.”
But once again, the California wildfires came up, with Trump and lawmakers specifically discussing whether or not to tie California disaster aid to the debt ceiling, another member told NOTUS. Trump encouraged the Republicans at the meeting to talk to Speaker Mike Johnson — who was not in attendance — about the idea, this member said.
While that may be a tough political sell, it could put Democrats in a tough position, though they also would balk at holding disaster aid hostage for the debt ceiling.
Still, another source pointed out that one notable conclusion from the discussion was that Trump may be considering taking the debt ceiling out of reconciliation. As many House GOP leaders are aware, the debt limit is a trip wire for a number of Republicans, and its inclusion in a reconciliation package could doom the partisan bill.
Trump’s weekend meetings come just over a week before his inauguration, as he tries to figure out the best way to pass his agenda. In the House, there’s hardly any margin for error.
Trump is meeting with these House GOP groups in an attempt to expedite the process, figure out firsthand what they would and would not accept, and get buy-in from the factions that may present a problem to his agenda.
Still, Trump hasn’t reached a firm plan with House and Senate GOP leaders. While he made a pitch to Senate Republicans last week for one reconciliation bill, it’s still undetermined whether Republicans move forward with that approach — or whether they try to pass something less controversial first and then hatch out the rest of his agenda in a second reconciliation bill.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.
Violet Jira, who is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow contributed to this report.