Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, predicted that President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” will pass the U.S. House of Representatives in the coming weeks by a narrow majority as the president takes on a hands-on role working with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) to ensure the bill’s passage.
Last week, the House Budget Committee voted 21-16 to not advance the bill.
On Sunday, the committee reconvened and moved to advance the bill by a 17-16 vote, with four Republican members – Chip Roy (R-TX-21), Andrew Clyde (R-GA-09), Josh Brecheen (R-OK-02), and Ralph Norman (R-SC-05) – changing their “no” votes to present.
Noting how Tennessee U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) was correct in his prediction over the weekend that Trump would intervene in the ongoing negotiations over the budget reconciliation bill by speaking with individual Republican holdouts directly, Pappert said he believes Trump is also working with Johnson to broker policy adjustments in order for the bill to pass.
“I think there’s probably a…phone call that he made, probably to Mike Johnson, saying, ‘Look, there’s four guys they want like Medicaid work requirements and they want a little bit quicker of the phasing out of the green New Deal, let’s get these two things done and let’s pass a bill’,” Pappert explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Pappert added that while there may be some “performative” pushback as the legislation is teed up for a full House vote in the coming weeks, he said he strongly believes the bill will pass with one Republican – Kentucky’s Thomas Massie (R-KY-04) – voting against.
“I think that you’re going to see a lot of performative back and forth, but at the end, I once again predict you’re going to have Trump come in and everybody except maybe Thomas Massie are going to vote for the bill,” he said.
Pappert pointed out how Trump’s hands-on approach to ensuring the bill passes Congress marks a distinct contrast from the president’s first term where he deferred to former Speaker Paul Ryan and got little in return.
“This is a radically different tactic from President Trump than what he was doing this time in his first administration when Paul Ryan essentially told him, ‘Look, I promise, go along with whatever I want, and then we’ll get you your big, beautiful wall after the midterms.’ What did Trump do? He trusted Paul Ryan, we wound up getting no big, beautiful wall. He had to use military funding to do it and sidestep Congress entirely. This is a totally different President Trump,” Pappert said.
Coupling the fact that Johnson is “very amenable” to Trump’s agenda and Trump is more assertive and strategic this second term, Pappert said he believes the end result will see more of Trump’s “MAGA agenda” accomplished.
“Mike Johnson is, let’s face it, very amenable to what President Trump has to say, and I think that we’re going to wind up getting better legislation and more of our MAGA agenda accomplished as a result,” Pappert said.
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— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) May 19, 2025
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
