President Donald trump is meeting with holdouts today on his signature legislation as House leaders rush to pass the bill this week, according to a White House official.
trump’s public schedule was left empty Wednesday, leaving plenty of room for telephone calls or potential in-person meetings with GOP leaders or Republican holdouts, officials said.
A group of House Republicans with various concerns was expected to go to the White House today to meet with the president personally as Republicans try to lock down the votes to pass the Senate’s version of the bill, according to sources.
trump is prepared to do whatever it takes to get the bill passed, one official said, and his staff are ready if he decides to make a trip to Capitol Hill — although no visit is currently in the works.
The bet White House officials are making is that trump’s arm-twisting and pressure tactics will convince enough Republicans to get in line. That approach has generally been successful for trump in the past; there aren’t many examples of House Republicans denying him what he wants.
trump’s aides view what happened in the Senate as a roadmap: After days of resistance, holdout senators like Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska eventually voted yes, with trump’s threats of political retribution looming.
trump’s advisers have been working to erode House resistance for days; a White House official said there had been constant conversations between the administration and House Republicans as the Senate was making changes to the bill.
“The reality is we’ve been whipping in the House for weeks,” the official said.
CNN’s Annie Grayer and Sarah Ferris contributed to this post.
