President Donald Trump arrived on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to deliver a “pep talk” to Republicans in an effort to pass his “big, beautiful bill.”
“We’re not touching anything, All I want is one thing. Three words. We don’t want any waste, fraud, or abuse,” Trump said. “Very simple. Waste, fraud, abuse. Other than that, we’re leaving it, Medicare. We’re leaving it all.”
Trump was extremely complimentary of House Speaker Mike Johnson as he spoke to reporters ahead of the House Republicans’ weekly meeting on the Hill. It is not clear whether Trump will meet with individual holdouts directly.
“We have a very, very united party. This man has done a fantastic job. It’s only been recently, but this man has done a fantastic job. He’s a real unifier,” Trump said of Johnson, who stood beside him.
“I don’t think anybody else could have done it. We had– I just said to your cohorts downstairs, we had a majority of one for a period of was and he gets it together and we actually cast this and nobody else came,” he told reporters. “He’s done a fantastic job, the Speaker. We have a very, very unified party.”
A White House official confirmed to The Hill on Monday that Trump planned to head to the Capitol. The meeting was first reported by Punchbowl News.
Republicans advanced the One Big Beautiful Bill Act out of the House Budget Committee in a late-night vote Sunday, marking a key hurdle cleared for House GOP leaders as they look to move the legislation through the chamber despite disagreements within the party.
The next stop is the House Rules Committee, which is set to take up the legislation later this week and make last-minute changes to the bill to reflect any compromises and demands between deficit hawks and moderates in high-tax states.
The White House signaled earlier Monday that Trump would get involved to try to win over holdouts if called upon to do so.
“Over the weekend the president was in direct conversation and communication with the Speaker of the House. He’s been very involved. He always is,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier Monday. “He’s willing to pick up the phone when he is asked to. So he’ll continue to be very engaged in this process with both House members and his friends on the Senate side as well.”
