Shutdown Aversion Strategy: Trump Relies on Freedom Caucus Support to Avoid Government Shutdown
Straight-Up Donald Trump Manages Republican Hardliners, Wins on spending measure that many conservatives loathed 🔥
Everybody thought House speakers from John Boehner to Kevin McCarthy had the magic touch to get Republican hardliners to pass a bill they detested, but they were wrong. It was none other than Donald Trump who finally managed to convince them to walk the plank on one of Washington's dreaded short-term spending bills.
Even with the House GOP's own whip operation working overtime, it was Trump who secured the final votes for this funding measure.
"He's like, one of the only people up here I trust," Rep. Eli Crane, who once voted to oust McCarthy for pushing a similar spending patch, stated during a brief interview. "I don't want to see the president having to negotiate with Democrats."
The week-long pressure campaign from Trump and his inner circle was both public and private, and it proved critical to Trump's party's floor victory on Tuesday night. It also showcased the president's new strategy to win over skeptical members not with his bluster, but with a more personal touch - the same approach that those close to him credited with strong-arming his Cabinet nominees through the Senate earlier this year.
In the discussions that took place, several members expressed their own specific needs and requirements in order to support the bill. Some of them included reassuring members who were concerned about their reelection chances in competitive primaries that Trump would support them moving forward.
However, Trump's sale pitch to skeptical Republicans could also put the White House in a bind down the line as the president and his top aides seemed to have made conflicting promises. For instance, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee claimed the president assured him that DOGE would more closely scrutinize defense spending moving forward, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to increase spending for the Pentagon in a separate conversation with Republican senators.
But the Republicans are still relishing in Senate Democrats' political quandary over the funding bill, and celebrating their win despite the paper-thin margins - marking the House GOP's second major lift in a month, after advancing the party's budget blueprint.
The White House's attitude toward one particular member, however, was less cordial. Trump himself declared that he will "lead the charge" to oust Rep. Thomas Massie from Congress after he refused to vote for the spending plan.
"HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump did not speak with Massie or attempt to change his mind before lambasting the Kentucky Republican on social media.
The overarching message from Trump is that he views the bill as crucial to carrying out his sweeping agenda - a point that he continues to argue in private conversations that he has a mandate to carry out.
Many House conservatives stated that the decision was also about empowering Trump to carry out not just his policy agenda, but also his control over a federal government of which they've long been skeptical.
"It's about giving the president the keys to the car," said Texas Rep. Michael Cloud. "If you saw a vehicle going down the road that didn't have a driver in it, you don't step out in front of it. You try to get in it, get control of it, and turn it around. That's kind of what's happening here."
- The ultraconservatives in the House GOP were empowered by the reelection, as they believed that voting for the spending measure would give Donald Trump the keys to carry out his agenda and gain more control over the federal government.
- Kevin McCarthy, who was once thought to have the magic touch to convince Republican hardliners to pass bills they detested, was overtaken by Donald Trump, who secured the final votes for a controversial spending measure with a combination of public and private pressure.
- The reelection of Donald Trump as a key figure in politics was instrumental in rallying skeptical members of the House Republican party to support a spending bill, with some members seeking his support for their own reelection chances in competitive primaries.
