WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump traveled to Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to deliver a message to House Republicans impeding a massive bill for his domestic agenda: Stop fighting and get it done as soon as possible.
In a closed-door meeting with rank-and-file Republicans, Trump took aim at a bloc of blue-state Republicans who’ve been pushing for a higher cap on the deduction their constituents can take for state and local taxes, known as SALT, while warning conservative hard-liners against steep cuts to Medicaid.
Trump’s appearance at the meeting comes at a critical time for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who is aiming to steer the party-line, multitrillion-dollar bill through the narrowly divided House in the coming days.
The package currently boosts the SALT cap to $30,000, up from the current $10,000 deduction. But pro-SALT Republicans have dismissed that figure as far too low.
“Let it go,” Trump told members of the so-called SALT Caucus, according to three lawmakers inside the meeting.
While Trump directed his comments at all the lawmakers negotiating a higher SALT cap, Trump singled out Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.
“End it, Mike, just end it,” the president said, according to two of the lawmakers. (Notably, when Trump endorsed Lawler earlier this month for re-election to his battleground House seat, he touted the congressman’s efforts to increase the SALT cap.)
The SALT Caucus Republicans are just one faction holding up the package, which seeks to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, boost funding for immigration enforcement and the milit and cut spending elsewhere. It would also raise the debt limit.
A handful of vocal members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus are threatening to vote against the measure unless they secure deeper spending cuts.
They’ve been pushing for new work requirements for Medicaid recipients to kick in sooner than the 2029 start date written in the current legislation. And conservatives are demanding a lower federal match to states for recipients added under the Obamacare expansion.
But Trump told Republicans, “Don’t f— around with Medicaid,” according to two lawmakers in the room.
A senior White House official said Trump urged Republicans to “stick together” to pass what he has dubbed his “one big, beautiful bill.” The president emphasized that the SALT issue should not halt the bill and that moderates can “fight for SALT later on,” the official said.
And Trump told Republicans not to touch Medicaid, except for tackling “waste, fraud and abuse,” the official said. The official said Trump was supportive of the new work requirements provisions and removing undocumented immigrants from Medicaid.
