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.

“Fundamentally, the president’s going to be deeply involved,” a White House official said.

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.

What to Know The Senate on Tuesday passed President Donald Trump’s landmark budget legislation with Vice President JD Vance casting the vote that broke a 50-50 tie.

The megabill faces an uncertain future at the House, as some Republicans have expressed concerns over deficit increases while others have criticized the legislation’s cuts to Medicaid.

Trump says Israel has agreed to ceasefire conditions in Gaza.

Trump’s budget plan heads to the House, where members of the lower chamber will vote whether to accept or reject changes made to the bill in the Senate. Follow along for live updates.

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The House returns at 9 a.m. to begin debate on Trump’s legislative package of tax reductions and Medicaid cuts.

At least two members of the Freedom Caucus who supported the House version, GOP Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland and Ralph Norman of South Carolina are opposed to the Senate version.

WASHINGTON – The House on July 2 started debating President Donald Trump’s legislative package of tax reductions and Medicaid cuts, as Republican leaders determine whether they can chart a path to victory with narrow majorities in Congress.

Trump has been urging lawmakers to send him the bill to sign into law by July 4 but also acknowledged the timeline is flexible. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, and other leaders said in a joint statement they would “work quickly” to meet their self-imposed deadline by approving the Senate version, which Vice President JD Vance pushed across the finish line with a tie-breaking vote July 1.

“Republicans were elected to do exactly what this bill achieves: secure the border, make tax cuts permanent, unleash American energy dominance, restore peace through strength, cut wasteful spending, and return to a government that puts Americans first,” the GOP leadership statement said.

But the path is narrow enough that changes are still possible. The House approved its initial version of the bill on a 215-214 vote in May. After four days of marathon debate and voting, the Senate approved its version in a 51-50 vote July 1, with three Republicans voting no and Vance breaking the tie.

Multiple House Republicans who supported their version of the bill – including Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland and Ralph Norman of South Carolina – said they oppose the Senate version. Harris and Norman are members of the House Freedom Caucus, which aims to cut federal spending.

A wavering Republican who voted yes, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the House should recognize “we’re not there yet” and make improvements before sending it back to the Senate.

“Because we have two options here, right? Kill it and it’s gone,” Murkowski said.

Here’s what we know about the bill:

What time is the House voting on the bill?

House Republicans have again pushed back a procedural vote that will clear the way for a final vote on Trump’s tax package.

The chamber now plans to vote on the rule to consider the bill around 12:15 p.m. EDT. However, several Republicans are at the White House discussing the package with Trump.

Further delays are likely as Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson twist arms to push his members to vote for the package. – Riley Beggin

Trump meets with House GOP at White House to push approval of megabill

President Donald Trump is meeting July 2 with several House Republicans at the White House to discuss passage of his tax and spending bill, a White House official confirmed to USA TODAY.

It was not immediately clear how many House Republicans made the short trip from the Capitol to the White House.

Reporters spotted a handful of lawmakers entering the side of the West Wing including moderate Rep. Mike Lawler, R-New York.

Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus are also expected to arrive to meet with Trump as the president pushes Republicans to stick together to pass the sweeping bill before his self-imposed Fourth of July deadline. – Joey Garrison

House gavels into session – but it’s slow going

The House has convened to consider President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax policy bill.Lawmakers will have to approve a rule that allows them to consider the package before a final vote. That involves three votes and hours of debate.Things are off to a slow start as members continue to trickle in from delayed travel to the nation’s capital.Nearly two dozen lawmakers are still missing as they hold open a procedural vote to begin the day’s session. – Riley Beggin

Rep. Chip Roy: Senate bill ‘violated spirit and terms of our House agreement’

Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and fiscal hawk who voted against advancing the bill in a key House committee, told USA TODAY the Senate version that passed July 1 “violated both the spirit and the terms of our House agreement” in terms of reducing the national debt.

An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found the Senate bill would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. That’s a nearly one trillion dollar increase from the House version, which would add $2.4 trillion to the debt.

Both House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said they plan on having House lawmakers vote on the Senate bill without amendments on July 2.

However, Roy said, “we need to see changes, and that’s where we are.”

On whether the July 4 deadline is still realistic, Roy said, “It probably depends on today, and whether there’s serious improvements made today on the bill.” – Sudiksha Kochi

What’s President Trump’s schedule today?

President Donald Trump urged House Republicans to not “let the Radical Left Democrats push you around” as he pushed for the quick passage of the Senate version of his massive tax and spending bill.

Trump has no public events scheduled for July 2 on his official presidential schedule, but the president is expected to closely keep tabs on the House proceedings as the lower chambers takes up his so-called “big, beautiful bill.”

With Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote, the Senate on July 1 approved the sweeping legislation by a 51-50 vote, with three Republican defectors.

“Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that also touted revenue collected by his tariffs on imports. “As they say, Trump’s been right about everything, and this is the easiest of them all to predict”

“Republicans, don’t let the Radical Left Democrats push you around. We’ve got all the cards, and we are going to use them,” he said. – Joey Garrison

House committee advances Trump’s bill without changes

A key House committee advanced President Donald Trump’s tax bill in a late-night marathon session.

Two of the House Rules Committee’s Republicans — Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina — voted against it, signaling the bruising floor fight to come over the bill’s more than $3.3 trillion price tag.

Members of both parties submitted more than 500 amendments to the bill, but none were adopted. The Senate’s version of the bill is what will head to the floor.

Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump are getting to work twisting arms as members trickle into Washington. A group of hold-outs, including Norman, are heading to the White House today to discuss the path forward with Trump.

“I’m sure he’s going to be mad,” Norman told NBC News, “but I don’t know what to tell him.” – Riley Beggin

Rules Committee previewed floor debate

The Rules Committee, which sets the framework for how legislation is debated on the House floor, offered a preview July 1 of how the debate will unfold.

Democrats warned about losses to the most vulnerable through cuts to food assistance and Medicaid, while Republicans highlighted tax cuts to help working families by not taxing tips or overtime.

“This couldn’t be a better time or better policies to strengthen working families,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, who heads the Budget Committee.

But Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, said polling found 2-1 margins against the bill.

“This is going to be one of the biggest if not the biggest votes in each and every one of our careers,” Boyle said. “I am proud to be here doing everything I possibly can to say, ‘Hell, no, let’s kill this bill.’” – Bart Jansen

Two GOP members of Freedom Caucus oppose Senate bill

Norman, a member of the Rules Committee, said he would vote against the Senate version of the bill.

“What they did to our bill was unconscionable,” Norman said. “My hope is we go back to the drawing board and get something close to what we passed.”

Harris told Fox News’ “America Reports” that he would oppose the rule so that negotiations would continue with the Senate.

“The bottom line is this is not ready for prime time,” Harris said. “This is not going to sail through the House.”

“We’ll get there eventually but I don’t think it’s going to be in the next couple of days,” Harris said.

– Riley Beggin and Bart Jansen

Musk opposes bill, threatens GOP with primary challengers

Elon Musk, Trump’s former billionaire adviser who spent nearly $300 million last year to help Republicans win the election, blasted the bill and said he would support GOP primary challengers to anyone who supports it.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk wrote on social media June 30. “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

Musk is CEO of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles, and SpaceX, which makes rockets. Trump contends Musk opposes the bill because it would end subsidies for electric vehicles and because the president passed over his choice to head NASA.

Trump told reporters July 1 he would consider deporting Musk, a naturalized U.S. citizen from South Africa. “I don’t know. We’ll have to take a look,” Trump said. – Bart Jansen

Trump announced today that he has struck a trade deal with Vietnam that will see import duties on goods brought to the U.S. directly from that country rise to 20% — and to 40% for any “transshipment” of goods sent there as an attempted work around from tariffs being charged to other countries, especially China.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said that in return for accepting those duties, Vietnam had agreed to open its entire market, duty free, to U.S. goods.

That may prove a heavy price to pay. U.S. goods exports to Vietnam totaled just $13.1 billion in 2024, compared with $136.6 billion-worth of imports. Some of that likely included goods re-routed by China in order to avoid paying U.S. duties. In April, Vietnam pledged to crack down on illicit transshipments.

Major tech firms including Apple, Google, Meta and Samsung all source devices, like smartphones and virtual reality headsets, from Vietnam. Apple has said it has created more than 200,000 jobs there.

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