Republican hardliners threaten to derail GOP bill encompassing Trump’s agenda
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(WASHINGTON) — A mega-bill encompassing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda appears to be in jeopardy as several Republican hardliners on Thursday signaled their opposition to advancing the package out of the House Budget Committee later this week.
“I am voting no,” Republican Rep. Ralph Norman said Thursday afternoon, citing concerns about the bill adding to a bloated national debt.
With Republican Rep. Brandon Gill expected to be absent, the GOP can only afford to lose one vote in the House Budget Committee to advance the bill. The committee is slated to convene Friday morning.
Norman, who has had his arm twisted to fall in line on more than one occasion, said fellow Republican Rep. Chip Roy plans to vote no and “thinks” Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia will vote against advancing the bill as well. Oklahoma Republican Rep. Josh Brecheen, a member of the House Budget Committee, appeared skeptical about the bill moving forward.
“We have a duty to know the true cost of this legislation before advancing it. If we are to operate in truth, we must have true numbers — even if that means taking some more time to obtain that truth,” he said on X, echoing similar concerns raised by Roy.
Republicans will “go back to work” if the bill fails out of committee Friday, Norman said.
Should the bill make it out of committee, Speaker Mike Johnson still faces a tough road ahead as the Republican majority can withstand three no votes from within their ranks before losing sufficient support for passage. The effort to pass the Trump-backed bill is another crucial test of Johnson’s speakership as he works to unify his divided conference.
Earlier Thursday, Johnson held a high-stakes meeting to hash out the remaining sticking points related to Medicaid and tax reform — key components of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — that have so far prevented leadership from locking down sufficient support for the bill’s passage.
Johnson told reporters after the meeting that Republicans had “a very thoughtful discussion,” adding that he plans to work through the weekend to come to what’s been an elusive consensus on the SALT caps — the amount of state and local taxes that can be written off on federal tax returns — as moderates draw a red line opposing the proposed $30,000 cap on those deductions.
“I think everyone would agree that it was productive and that we are moving the ball forward,” Johnson said, adding he is striving “to meet the equilibrium point that everyone can be satisfied with.”
On Thursday morning, House Republicans formally unveiled the text of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — a 1,116-page mega-bill.
Johnson said earlier that he’s not budging on the Memorial Day target to dispatch the mega-bill from the House.
Johnson claimed Republicans are aiming to pass the package in a “deficit-neutral way” when pressed if the package will add trillions of dollars to the deficit.
“If you do more on SALT, you have to find more in savings,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump nears the 100th day of his second presidency, polling shows Americans largely disapproving of his handling of the economy, tariffs, and recent stock market turmoil.
But his 2024 voters largely say they’re still confident in his handling of the economy, and they overwhelmingly stand by their vote for Trump.
“I believe Trump will turn things around; I’m glad he’s president,” said Jessianna Bartier, 53, of Ohio. “With Biden, I felt there was so much waste. He was causing a lot of damage economically,” she said, and she had felt depressed by the former president’s efforts. “Trump has definitely got his work cut out for him.”
According to a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, only 39% of Americans approve of how Trump has handled the economy; fewer approve of his handling of tariffs on imported goods or recent stock market turmoil. Seventy-one percent of Americans said that Trump’s handling of tariffs will contribute to inflation in the United States, although 59% think tariffs will create more manufacturing jobs.
But among Americans who voted for Trump in 2024, 87% approve of how he is handling the economy, while 78% approve of his handling of tariffs. A softer 71% said they approve of his handling of recent turmoil in the stock market.
Furthermore, among 2024 Trump voters, 74% think his economic policies will put the U.S. economy on a stronger foundation for the long term; at the same time, 45% of those voters think it’s very or somewhat likely that his economic policies will cause a recession in the short term.
An overwhelming 96% of those who voted for Trump believe how they voted was the right thing to do.
Bartier, a former flight attendant, now works as a bartender and lives in Ohio. She said she used to be a Democrat but became Republican as she “started dating more mature men.” She said she has always voted because “my voice matters.”
Bartier said her family is struggling financially at the moment, because her fiance lost his job and her own income is “definitely not enough.”
But she’s optimistic that Trump will be able to strengthen the economy.
She has mixed feelings about Trump on some issues, saying she appreciates his border crackdown but is at odds with his views on LGBTQ issues and abortion.
But on tariffs, she said she feels they may cause challenges at first but will be effective later on — although the recent stock market turmoil does give her pause.
“I think the tariffs are, in the short term, going to hurt us economically; but in the long term, [they’re] going to bring back jobs to America,” she said. She acknowledged feeling uncertain about how the tariff news impacted stocks: “Do I like seeing the Dow go down on itself? No.”
“[Trump’s] gonna do what he’s gonna do. He’s kind of a rogue agent,” Bartier added.
Anthony Romano, 64, a retired purchasing agent who lives by himself in Philadelphia, said he feels positive about Trump but has some concerns about the stock market.
“Overall I think he’s doing a really good job,” Romano said, but he added that it “seems like the stock market has been crashing — it’ll put a lot of stress on people.”
Stocks have fluctuated in the wake of what some experts described as continued uncertainty over the White House’s tariff policies and announcements. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the White House is “setting the fundamentals for a strong dollar, a strong economy, a strong stock market”.
Romano said he’s still confident in the president, citing Trump’s experience as a businessman.
“I have my trust in him; he knows what he’s doing,” he said.
Another of Trump’s voters who took the poll, Deborah Williams, 71, of Nevada, considers herself an independent politically and said she just retired from running a home-based business. Her husband, 78, has a part-time job and earns minimum wage.
She said she’s keeping an eye on the economy, especially given their dwindled income, and is “cautious about where I’m spending my money these days,” including with travel.
On tariffs, she has mixed feelings. She’s concerned they could impact prices and may be being done too bluntly, but called Trump’s philosophy behind them “a noble idea.”
“I want America to be the tough kid on the block again,” Williams said, and she does not want think Americans should be paying for or subsidizing other countries’ expenses. “Trump’s my man for doing that at this point,” she said, adding later, “He has the opportunity to put our economy back together by playing hardnose with some of these people we import from.”
The poll only asks respondents for their first names; some respondents contacted by ABC News declined to share their last name.
Irene, 63, who works for the library and local government in a northern New Jersey town, told ABC News that she has mixed feelings over how the Trump administration has rolled out tariffs.
“I’m kind of favorable for the tariffs, because I think we have been taken advantage of by different countries,” she said. “It’s just that, maybe he’s going a little overboard or too fast with all of this. And the tariffs are going to affect a lot more than they were originally going to.”
She hasn’t felt any impact on her or her family’s finances yet. Asked what she hopes to see from the White House going forward, she said she was hoping for the economy she felt America had during the first Trump administration.
“I look back to when he was in the office the first four years, and I just felt like the economy was in better shape,” she said, mentioning interest rates and gas prices. “I was kind of hoping we could get somewhere towards that point.”
She also told the poll she feels a recession is somewhat likely, and she hopes it does not impact the jobs she holds or her finances.
“But I’m at the point where I’m trying to get in a better financial position, just in case that recession should happen, it won’t hit me as hard,” she said.
That has not caused her to rethink how she voted for Trump in November: “I’m still behind my vote because I definitely didn’t have a good feeling about the Democrats,” she said.
The ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® April 18-22, 2025, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,464 adults. Partisan divisions are 30%-30%-29%, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
Results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, including the design effect. Error margins are larger for subgroups. Sampling error is not the only source of differences in polls.
(MILWAUKEE, WI) — A reserve judge will be appointed to take over the cases of Judge Hannah Dugan, who was arrested by the FBI over allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant, according to a Milwaukee County official.
The county’s chief judge, Carl Ashley, said late Sunday that a reserve judge would take over Dugan’s calendar on Monday morning. The reserve judge was not named in the statement released to media.
Dugan, a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, was arrested on Friday over allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant “evade arrest” the week prior, FBI Director Kash Patel said.
Patel said on social media that the FBI believes “Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse.”
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement that two FBI agents arrested Dugan “for allegedly helping an illegal alien avoid arrest” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“No one is above the law,” Bondi said on Friday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Joe Biden in one of his first public speeches since leaving the White House offered a full-throated rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut Social Security on Tuesday, calling the amount of damage the White House has inflicted on the program “breathtaking” and “devastating,” — a sharp departure from his efforts while in office to protect it and “make it stronger.”
“Well, look what’s happening. In fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so much … done so much damage, and so much, it’s kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon,” Biden said.
Biden avoiding saying his successor’s name. In his nearly 30-minute remarks, the 82-year-old often sounded hushed, with several distinct outbursts in defense of Social Security and its recipients. His only indirect mention of President Donald Trump was to call him “this guy.”
Biden was introduced by former Maryland Gov. and Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley in front of roughly 180 attendees at the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled conference in Chicago.
“I will not go further and get in trouble …” Biden said wearily early in his speech, as he pivoted then from highlighting his own accomplishments as president to uplift Social Security to rebuking the current White House’s cuts.
“Last time this guy had the job, he raised the debt ceiling because of an enormous and profligate tax cut to the super wealthy,” Biden said later.
“They wanted to cut Social Security,” Biden added, calling out Republican members of Congress. “Not on my watch. We refused to go along with any of that,” he said.
Later in the former president’s remarks, he threw out any hesitancy to critique the current administration, even saying Trump voters in the 2024 election had “no heart.”
“What makes us distinct from the rest of the world? Basic, in my view, fundamental American values. Nobody’s king,” Biden said, again referencing Trump.
“You can’t go on like this, as a divided nation, as divided as we are, like I said, I’ve been doing this a long time. It’s never been this divided. Granted, it’s just 30 percent, but it’s a 30 percent that has no heart.”
He also warned of additional cuts to Social Security.
“They’ve taken a hatchet in Social Security, pushing additional 7,000 employees, 7,000 out the door in that time, including the most seasoned career officials. Now they’re getting ready to push something more out the door.”
Biden also hit directly at Trump’s Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and his senior adviser Elon Musk.
“Based on [Lutnick’s] comments, he doesn’t seem to even care. You saw what he said the other day. By the way, he’s a billionaire … He said his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn’t complain, wouldn’t bother her. Probably lovely woman. No kidding…. her son-in-law is a billionaire. What about that 94-year-old mother living all by herself?
“Folks, it’s not just the Secretary of Commerce, where we heard how others, empowered and emboldened by this administration, talk about Social Security, one of them called it a ‘Ponzi scheme.’ A Ponzi scheme — what the hell are they talking about?” Biden said, referring to Musk.
Biden suggested that the White House’s moves were based on the tech industry adage of “move fast and break things.”
He also asserted that this Congress would move to cut the program through the Republican funding package that would make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent.
“These guys are willing to hurt the middle class, working class, in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to the already very wealthy,” he said. “Who in the hell do they think they are? I really think they — I mean just basic, basic decency. Who do think they are?”
Biden’s speech came as Democratic congressional leaders billed Tuesday as a “Day of Action” focused on Social Security.
“Across the country, Democrats are leading the fight to oppose the Republican plan to gut Social Security. Our Save Social Security Day of Action will mobilize Americans from every corner of the United States to push back on Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE’s cuts to Social Security,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a joint statement.
“Republicans want to slash this critical lifeline by making it harder for seniors and people with disabilities to access their earned benefits. Shutting down local offices, firing large numbers of experienced constituent service workers and cutting phone services makes it harder for people to get their checks. Republicans are trying to kill Social Security from the inside — it is a cut by another name — and we won’t let that happen.”
