President Trump spoke on the phone with a handful of Republican lawmakers blocking his “big, beautiful bill” in the early hours of Thursday morning, The Hill has learned, as GOP leaders race to coalesce the conference around the sprawling package.
The phone call — which took place around 1 a.m. as holdouts huddled in a room off the House floor — came as a key procedural vote for the megabill remained open for almost four hours, with hardline conservatives and one moderate Republican hampering the legislation from moving forward.
As of 2 a.m. on Thursday, the vote was 207 to 217, with five Republicans having voted “no” and eight withholding their support. The combination has threatened to tank the rule, since Democrats are united against it, and a vote on the final package can’t proceed without that rule.
Trump spoke to some of those holdouts, including Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who were seen entering the room shortly before the call began. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) were seen leaving the room after the call.
Massie and Spartz voted against the rule, while Burchett had been withholding support. Massie initially voted to adopt the rule, before switching his vote to “no.”
During the conversation, Massie — who has been at odds with Trump over the megabill for weeks — suggested he was ready to drop his opposition and support the rule if Trump stops attacking him, The Hill has learned.
Trump and those in his orbit have gone after Massie in recent months after the Kentucky Republican voted against the House version of the megabill in May, and said the president’s strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities were “not Constitutional.” A Trump-aligned super PAC, led by the president’s 2024 co-campaign manager, has rolled out ads bashing Massie as those in Trump world vow a primary challenger.
Trump also tore into Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who voted against the megabill in the upper chamber earlier this week.
During an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity late Wednesday night, Johnson said Trump was willing to speak to Republican holdouts.
“He has been, in fact, he called me most recently about an hour ago and said who else needs to have a discussion, I’m ready to get on the phone. And I said, ‘Mr. President, you’ve done your job and we’ll do ours here,’” Johnson told Hannity.
The president had also fired off a series of late-night Truth Social posts, urging the GOP holdouts to drop their opposition to a procedural rule needed to advance the core of his domestic agenda, including tax cuts, tougher immigration rules and a boost in energy production.
Rather than gaveling the vote closed, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has opted to leave it open as he and his leadership team race to convince the holdouts to support the rule.
