President Donald Trump endorsed the House GOP budget proposal Wednesday morning, complicating Senate Republicans’ efforts to swiftly pass a more streamlined budget that would secure early legislative victories on border security and defense spending in his second term.
Senate and House Republicans have been advancing competing budget plans, with the Senate set to vote later this week on its own resolution, which would allocate $340 billion for border security and defense while also reforming federal energy policy to allow new oil and gas lease sales. Until Wednesday, Trump had largely remained on the sidelines of the debate, even as both chambers aggressively pushed their respective proposals.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have each dismissed the other chamber’s budget as dead on arrival, setting the stage for a GOP showdown over spending priorities. “The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM, however, unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning.
“We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.’ It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump added. The Senate voted largely along party lines Tuesday to advance its own budget resolution, though the measure now faces uncertainty given Trump’s endorsement of the House version.
Notably, the Senate GOP’s budget bill excludes an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, as well as several tax policies the president championed during his campaign, including eliminating taxes on tips, Social Security, and overtime pay. Senate Republicans had planned to address these tax priorities separately in a second budget reconciliation package later in the year, the Daily Caller reported. House GOP leadership, in contrast, supports a single, comprehensive approach that bundles all of Trump’s tax and spending priorities into what they call “one big, beautiful bill.”
On February 13, the House Budget Committee advanced a budget resolution outlining the framework for such a bill, incorporating the president’s economic agenda. The resolution sets a $4.5 trillion ceiling for deficit increases and mandates at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade. It also provides for a $4 trillion increase in the statutory debt limit.
However, several House Republicans have expressed opposition to the resolution, citing concerns that the resulting reconciliation bill could impose significant cuts to Medicaid. Addressing these concerns, Trump stated on Hannity Tuesday that he would not support reductions to entitlement programs—including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—except in cases of waste, fraud, and abuse.
“OMB Director Vought and Border Czar Homan told Senate Republicans that ICE is running out of money. We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas,” Graham wrote on X Tuesday. “Build the wall, deport illegal aliens, and create additional detention space so we don’t have to release illegal immigrants into the community. And God knows the military needs more money in these dangerous times.”
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