Donald Trump shows patience with congressional Republicans as they prepare to implement his agenda

President-elect Donald Trump is willing to wait a few months for Congress to pass “a big, beautiful bill” encompassing key tenets of his agenda, but it remains an open question whether lawmakers will be able to do so before his patience does not run out.

Lawmakers began legislative preparations for a Republican trio in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress even before the November elections, and ramped up their efforts in the months after their victory.

But much political work remains to be done to flesh out the details of the program, focused on securing the border, restoring U.S. energy dominance, cutting taxes and reining in spending.

“It’s going to be an exciting time here,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, told reporters Monday after Congress certified Mr. Trump’s election victory. “You’re going to see a lot of activity, and we’re fully ready and prepared to get this work done.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota also said “Republicans are ready to go” and will immediately begin working to implement Mr. Trump’s agenda.

But Mr. Thune and Mr. Johnson must first decide on a single strategy for moving the agenda forward, or the Senate and House will enter the 119th Congress on a collision course.

The first days since lawmakers were sworn in on Jan. 3 have already provided a chaotic window into Republicans’ struggles to get on the same page.

It began on Friday when Mr. Johnson narrowly avoided defeat in a House vote to re-elect him president. He had to convince two Republicans to reverse their votes to prevent that outcome, assuring his conservative critics that he would stick to Mr. Trump’s agenda and cut spending in the process.

While Mr Johnson was in survival mode, Mr Thune sat down for two interviews broadcast on Sunday’s political talk shows.

In the interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Thune discussed Senate Republicans’ preparations to pass a border-focused bill in the first weeks of the new administration, to provide billions of dollars in funding to support the executive actions that Mr. Trump. plans to assume the first day of his presidency.

“We need physical barriers, we need technological barriers, we need more ICE agents, we need more border patrol agents and… ways to expel people,” he said. he declared. “And so, it’s going to take resources to make that happen.”

That’s why Mr. Thune said he suggested congressional Republicans take charge of border funding “immediately.”

On Saturday, however, Mr Johnson met with his conference at a retreat organized to work on their own legislative preparations. He announced that Mr. Trump preferred to tackle the agenda in one big bill, much to the relief of many House Republicans who believe that is the best strategy for holding their slim majority together.

Mr. Johnson publicly confirmed this strategy the next day during an appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” saying the goal was to pass the giant bill through Congress by the end of April or ” worst case scenario, Memorial Day.” »

Later in the evening, Mr. Trump showed his support for the single bill strategy on social media.

“Members of Congress are getting to work on a powerful bill that will bring our country back and make it greater than ever,” he said. “We need to secure our border, unleash American energy and renew the Trump tax cuts, which were the biggest in history, but we’re going to make it even better – NO TAX ON TIPS. ALL OF THIS WILL MAKE UP OF TARIFFS, AND MUCH MORE, FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE PROFITED FROM THE UNITED STATES FOR YEARS.

Mr. Trump did not give a deadline for Congress to pass the measure, but urged Republicans to unite quickly to meet the expectations of the American people.

“Be smart, be tough and send the bill to my office to sign as soon as possible,” he said.

But on Monday morning, Mr. Trump went on The Hugh Hewitt Show and said that while his preference was for “a big, beautiful bill,” he was not committed to taking that approach.

“I would prefer one, but I will do whatever is necessary to get it passed,” he said, noting that he was open to the two-bill approach favored by Senate Republicans. but that he considered the single-bill strategy “cleaner” and “nicer.”

Mr. Trump said he had a lot of respect for Mr. Thune, as well as other senators like Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who prefer to introduce a border bill before the other more complex items on the agenda, such as tax cuts. .

“So I’m open to either solution as long as we get something passed as quickly as possible,” Mr. Trump said.

He acknowledged that the single-bill approach he favors will take longer, but said, “I would live with that.”

Republicans plan to pass legislation, whether it’s one bill or two, through the budget reconciliation process because it allows them to avoid the Senate filibuster. That means that if their party stays united, they won’t need to work with Democrats to pass major items on Mr. Trump’s agenda that the minority party is likely to oppose.

But passing the reconciliation bill without Democratic support means Republicans won’t lose any votes in the House, where they will soon have a zero vote cushion after two members left for the Trump administration.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, can afford up to three defections because they can count on Vice President-elect JD Vance to break the vote.

Mr Johnson said on Sunday that combining the agenda’s disparate elements into one package will make it “easier to get everyone on board” because there will be more to like than to dislike.

On Monday, he acknowledged that the strategy was still up in the air after Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Hewitt and said he had been in contact with Mr. Thune to find “the most effective and efficient way “to have the agenda adopted.

“So I won’t worry too much about the exact strategy,” the speaker told reporters. “It’s the content of the bills that counts.”

Mr. Johnson said there were good arguments for the two bills’ strategy, including that it would allow Republicans “to bring points to the board, so to speak, at the beginning of the year, and to manage some of the border measures in a statutory manner”.

“But there will also be a lot of executive order action at the border, and a lot of attention will be paid to that,” he said. “And we will pass border legislation here one way or another.”

For example, the House is expected to vote this week on the Laken Riley Act, a bill named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuelan immigrant who had been paroled and released to the United States after crossing the border illegally.

The attacker had been arrested for shoplifting before the murder, but was released. The bill would require ICE to take custody of illegal aliens who commit theft. It also allows a state to sue the federal government if its citizens suffer harm due to failure to enforce border laws.

As for funding to support Mr. Trump’s planned executive actions at the border, Mr. Johnson said Sunday that he had conversations with new administration officials who were considering what money already allocated they could move as soon as he takes office.

Mr. Trump confirmed that he could wait a while for Congress to approve additional funding.

“We don’t desperately need it right now,” he said.