Donald Trump is continuing to complicate the path forward for congressional Republicans, who are desperate for clarity on what the president wants them to do to enact his massive domestic agenda.
In comments on Brian Kilmeade’s radio show Friday, Trump openly entertained a notion that the GOP’s efforts to extend expiring tax cuts with new policies on border security and energy production may need to be broken up into smaller bills to clear Congress.
The Senate approved a budget resolution early in the morning after hours of amendment votes that would pave the way for two bills to accomplish those priorities, while the House is set to muscle through a budget blueprint next week that would set the stage for one piece of legislation encapsulating everything.
“Now what they approved yesterday is one part of it, and then they approve another part of it,” Trump said on Kilmeade’s radio show. “And, you know, you could, I guess, you could make the case. You could do three. You could do 10.”
Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to flip remaining holdouts and push through his budget plan — before the process goes further off the rails as vulnerable Republicans and others in safer red districts revolt over proposals for steep cuts to Medicaid and other safety net programs on which their constituents rely.
House GOP leaders are also continuing to warn that one massive bill is the only way to get Trump’s agenda through the razor-thin GOP majority. They’ve argued for months that hard-liners will kill a separate tax package if it’s broken off and left for a second bill, as senators have proposed.
“As long as we get them all added up and it’s the same thing,” Trump insisted on Friday. “And, you know, I think we’re in very good shape.”
