Trump meets with congressional Republicans as GOP lawmakers argue over tax and spending cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted an unusually long meeting with House Republicans at the White House on Thursday, turning over prime workspace for them to hammer out differences over the size, scope and details of their multitrillion-dollar plan to cut taxes, regulations and government spending.

Trump set the tone at the start of the nearly five-hour session, lawmakers said, then left them alone for a meeting that ran so long that Speaker Mike Johnson missed his own one-on-one at the U.S. Capitol with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who instead met with Democratic leaders and other lawmakers as the speaker's office scrambled to reschedule.

“Very positive developments today,” Johnson said once he returned to the Capitol. "We’re really grateful to the president for leaning in and doing what he does best, and that is put a steady hand at the wheel and get everybody working.”

House and Senate GOP leaders have been desperately looking to Trump for direction on how to proceed on their budget bill, but so far the president has been noncommittal about the details — only pushing Congress for results. Trump’s message to them Thursday: Get it done.

The standoff is creating frustration for Republicans as precious time is slipping and they fail to make progress on what has been their top priority with their party in control in Washington. At the same time, congressional phone lines are being swamped with callers protesting Trump's cost-cutting efforts led by billionaire Elon Musk against federal programs, services and operations.

House Republicans planned to meet into the night at the Capitol to wrap up agreement on a package they could announce before lawmakers leave town Friday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president and lawmakers were discussing “tax priorities of the Trump administration,” including Trump's promises to end federal taxation of tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. Renewing tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 also was on the agenda, she said.

“The president is committed to working with Congress to get this done,” Leavitt said.

Johnson, despite the slimmest of majorities, has insisted Republicans will stay unified and on track to deliver on his goal of House passage of the legislation by April.

The chair of the House Budget Committee, Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington, returned from the meeting saying his panel will hold hearings on the package next week.

“The heat was on medium the whole time,” Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., the chair of the House GOP conference, said after the meeting, which she said was “spirited” at times.

The group stayed so long debating in the Cabinet Room at the White House they were served turkey-bacon sandwiches. If the House Republicans’ initial meeting with Trump at the White House last month was a good first date, this one was “whether we want kids or not,” McClain said.

But as Johnson's timeline slips — the House was hoping to start budget hearings this week — the Senate is making moves to take charge. GOP senators are heading to Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club on Friday for their own meeting.

Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota have proposed a two-step approach, starting with a smaller bill that would include money for Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall and deportation plans, among other priorities. They would later pursue the more robust package of tax break extensions before a year-end deadline.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, announced late Wednesday that he was pushing ahead next week with hearings to kickstart the process.

The dueling approaches between the House and Senate are becoming something of a race to see which chamber will make the most progress toward the GOP's overall goals.

The House GOP largely wants what Trump has called a “big, beautiful bill” that would extend some $3 trillion in tax cuts that expire at the end of the year, and include a list of other GOP priorities, including funding for the president's mass deportation effort and border wall. It include massive cuts from a menu of government programs — from health care to food assistance — to help offset the tax cuts.

The smaller bill Graham is proposing would total some $300 billion and include border money and a boost in defense spending, largely paid for with a rollback of Biden-era green energy programs.

Graham, R-S.C., said that would give the Trump administration the money it needs to "finish the wall, hire ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents to deport criminal illegal immigrants.”

“This will be the most transformational border security bill in the history of our country,” Graham said.

House Republicans are deeply split over Graham’s approach. But they are also at odds over their own ideas.

House GOP leaders are proposing cuts that would bring $1 trillion in savings over the decade, lawmakers said, but members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus want at least double that amount.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said he’s looking for $2.5 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, or $250 billion annually, as part of that plan, compared to a $1 trillion floor over 10 years that some in GOP leadership have discussed.

Roy and other members of the Freedom Caucus are interested in Graham's approach, which is seen as a down payment on Trump's immigration and deportation plans, while the party continues work on the broader tax and spending cuts package.

But Arrington, the House Budget Committee chair, has previously said the $2.5 trillion in spending reductions was a “stretch goal.”

Johnson, R-La., needs almost complete unanimity from his ranks to pass any bill over objections from Democrats. In the Senate, Republicans have a 53-47 majority, with little room for dissent.

Trump has repeatedly said he is less wed to the process used in Congress than the outcome of achieving his policy goals.

President Donald Trump talks to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., left and and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., right, after he spoke to the National Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with reporters to discuss the Trump agenda following a closed-door strategy session, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's choice to be director of the FBI, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - The White House is seen, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

Palestinian medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 23 people in the Gaza Strip overnight into Tuesday.

The dead include three children and their parents, who were killed in a strike on their tent near the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, which has received a flood of dead and wounded since Israel resumed heavy bombardment of Gaza last week, shattering the ceasefire that had halted the 17-month war.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 113,000, according to the Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Israel launched the campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251. Israel says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because it operates in densely populated areas.

Here's the latest:

One of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary “ No Other Land ” was still missing on Tuesday after being beaten by Jewish settlers and detained by the Israeli military.

Attorney Lea Tsemel told The Associated Press she had no information on filmmaker Hamdan Ballal’s whereabouts early Tuesday, around 12 hours after witnesses said he was attacked and detained.

Ballal was one of three Palestinians detained in the village of Susiya late Monday, according to Tsemel, who is representing them. Police told her they’re being held at a military base for medical treatment, and she said she hasn’t been able to speak with them.

Basel Adra, another co-director, witnessed the detention and said around two dozen settlers — some masked, some carrying guns, some in Israeli uniform — attacked the village. Soldiers who arrived pointed their guns at the Palestinians, while settlers continued throwing stones.

The Israeli military said it detained three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at forces and one Israeli civilian involved in a “violent confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians — a claim witnesses interviewed by the AP disputed.

The military said it had transferred them to Israeli police for questioning and had evacuated an Israeli citizen from the area to receive medical treatment.

Palestinian medics say Israeli strikes killed at least 23 people in the Gaza Strip overnight into Tuesday.

Nasser Hospital said it received four additional bodies from two other strikes in addition to the family of five.

In central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said it received the bodies of six people who were killed in three separate strikes. Three others were killed in a strike on a house in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital.

In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on a residential building killed 5 people, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service. Another 12 people were wounded, it said.

Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of the Field Hospitals Department in Gaza, surveys the destruction inside the surgical building of Nasser Hospital, a day after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Amani Abu Aker holds the body of her two-year-old niece Salma, killed during an Israeli army strike, before their burial at the Baptist hospital in Gaza City, Monday March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians carry the body of Ismail Barhoum, a member of Hamas' political bureau who was killed in an Israeli army strike on Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of the Field Hospitals Department in Gaza, surveys the destruction inside the surgical building of Nasser Hospital, a day after it was struck by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)