The White House said Thursday President Trump believes the two House Republican holdouts on the budget bill which passed despite their opposition should be primaried.
This from newsmax.com.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted the president’s intent in response to a question posed by Newsmax White House reporter Mike Carter at Thursday’s press briefing.
Carter’s question centered on GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio, who both voted with the Left against the “big, beautiful bill” which passed early Thursday by one vote.
Leavitt said:
I believe [Trump] does think the two lawmakers should be primaried. And I don’t think he likes to see grandstanders in Congress.
Trump called Massie a “grandstander” on Tuesday while visiting Capitol Hill.
Leavitt added:
What’s the alternative, I would ask those members of Congress? Did they want to see a tax hike? Did they wanna see our country go bankrupt? That’s the alternative by them trying to vote no.
Further:
And the president believes the Republican Party needs to be unified, and a vast majority of Republicans clearly are—and are listening to the president. They are trusting in President Trump as they should because there’s a reason he’s sitting in this Oval Office.
Massie took to the House floor early Thursday to attack a bill that he was dead set against from the jump.
He said:
I’m here to deliver a dose of reality. This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near term, but promises our government will be fiscally responsible five years from now. Where have we heard that before? How do you bind a future Congress to these promises? This bill is a debt bomb ticking.
In a post to X early Thursday, Davidson pressed his case.
He wrote:
While I love many things in the bill, promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending. Deficits do matter and this bill grows them now. The only Congress we can control is the one we’re in. Consequently, I cannot support this big deficit plan.
Leavitt added in response to Carter:
The president’s approval rating is at an all-time high right now. It’s because he knows how to deliver. And Republicans like Thomas Massie and others should take note.
