Trump Was Oblivious About a Major Element of His Own ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
The president insisted that Medicaid was sacrosanct—only to be told that his megabill chops the program by $1 trillion.
The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty
Donald Trump summoned a handful of wavering GOP moderates to the White House on Wednesday to make one last sales pitch for his “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Instead, he wound up learning—from his own rank and file—that the legislation slashes Medicaid, the very program he’d just warned them never to touch if Republicans “want to win elections,” according to a report from NOTUS.
Trump reportedly declared that Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security were off-limits, only for one member to pipe up: “But we’re touching Medicaid in this bill,” according to three sources who spoke to the news website.
Awkward, because touch it they do. The Senate-passed version carves a little over $1 trillion out of Medicaid—part of a $1.2 trillion package of safety-net cuts that could deprive roughly 11 million people of coverage, the Congressional Budget Office says, per MediaIte.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had to wrangle for hours to win a procedural vote for the bill.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The same 940-page monster pours $150 billion into the Pentagon, and funnels $350 billion toward immigration enforcement, including money for 10,000 new ICE officers.
The bill squeaked through the Senate 51-50, with Vice President J.D. Vance breaking the tie.
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Travel delays and factional rebellions twice halted floor action Wednesday, blowing past Speaker Mike Johnson’s schedule and threatening Trump’s self-imposed July 4 signing deadline.
A Capitol staffer wheels a bin full of empty pizza boxes from the speaker's office as GOP rebels held out.
Bill Clark/Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images
Issues with Trump’s centerpiece bill prompted a classic post-midnight X meltdown from the president.
Now the drama shifts to the House, where Republicans “can only afford three defections,” and Kentucky’s Thomas Massie has already vowed to vote no.
Pressed about the president’s apparent fog, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told NOTUS the bill “takes decisive action to protect Medicaid for generations to come by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse… President Trump is committed to protecting Medicaid for the vulnerable Americans who rely on it most.”
She repeated the statement when approached for comment by The Daily Beast.
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