Trump gives GOP senators no set strategy as leaders struggle to craft his priorities

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump likes the idea of ''one, big beautiful bill" for his top legislative priorities, but he emerged from a lengthy closed-door meeting with Republican senators late Wednesday open to other strategies as GOP leaders strain to develop a plan before the party gains full power in Washington.

Trump said it ''feels great'' to be back inside the U.S. Capitol for the first time since he left office four years ago, after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by his supporters. With his wife, Melania, he also paid tribute to the late President Jimmy Carter lying in state in the Rotunda ahead of funeral services Thursday.

With Trump taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, Republicans have no time to waste.

''We're looking at the one bill versus two bills, and whatever it is, it doesn't matter," Trump said about the conflicting strategies as he arrived. "We're going to get the result.''

More than 90 minutes later, after bantering with GOP senators on a wide range of topics, Trump exited with the same message: ''One bill, two bills, doesn't matter.''

Trump's return to Capitol Hill marked a changed era in Washington as he strode through the corridors where four years ago a mob of his supporters had laid siege to the U.S. Capitol as senators fled to safety in a failed attempt to salvage Trump's election defeat to President Joe Biden.

Inside the private meeting, Trump received applause and bursts of laughter from the Republican senators, staying late into the evening to confer with him behind closed doors. He took questions as the conversation roamed — from his designs on Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal to the fires raging in California and even the North Dakota Bison game, senators said.

At stake are tax cuts, border security, money to deport immigrants and efforts to boost oil and gas energy production — priorities for Republicans coming to the White House, House and Senate.

He first met privately with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and is also expected to huddle over the weekend with House GOP lawmakers at his private club Mar-a-Lago.

Thune said afterward the Republican senators and Trump want the same results. ''It's an ongoing conversation,'' he said.

Political capital is almost always at its peak at the start of a new presidential term, even more so because this is Trump's second and he is prevented under the Constitution from a third. Moving swiftly is all the more important because the GOP majorities are slim, particularly in the House, where House Speaker Mike Johnson can't afford to lose hardly any votes.

Johnson, who greeted Trump at the Capitol, has said he sees himself operating as the GOP quarterback with Trump as their coach calling plays. But Republicans are quickly finding themselves in a dilemma: What happens when the coach changes his mind?

Trump has given Republicans on Capitol Hill mixed signals, flip-flopping over what is the best approach. Over the weekend, he said he wanted ''one big, beautiful bill.'' By Monday, he had reopened the door to two.

House Republicans want a single package. Senate GOP leaders are proposing at least two.

At one point during the meeting, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. said he suggested, "Well, Mr. President, you love a horse race and then whatever works best is great.'''

Hoeven said, ''He prefers one big, beautiful bill but hey you know he wants to get all this done.''

Budget reconciliation carries high risk, but potentially high reward

Republicans are relying on perhaps the most complicated legislative tool at their disposal, the budget reconciliation process, as the vehicle to advance Trump's priorities.

It's a strategy with high risk, but also potentially high reward.

Reconciliation allows Congress to pass bills on a majority basis, without the threat of a filibuster in the Senate that could delay or kill action. But it is also a difficult, strict and time-consuming process that can fall apart at any moment.

Democrats used the same tool during the Obama era to approve the Affordable Care Act in 2010 without any Republican support. Republicans used it during Trump's first term to pass the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act without Democrats.

Using reconciliation is a herculean task. Doing it twice could prove doubly difficult.

Democrats are trying to stand their ground

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California said what's at stake is that Trump and the Republicans are proposing a tax giveaway to the wealthy and budget cuts that will cut social services and other programs that Americans rely on.

Republicans are ''huddling behind closed doors'' focused on ''how they provide tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires and how they cut programs that hurt people,'' he said.

Thune has said one could be approved within the first 30 days of the new administration with provisions for border security and mass deportations, energy development and military funds. The tax cuts would come later, in a second package.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a member of GOP leadership who invited the president-elect to meet with senators, said she could go with one or two bills.

''But I still think the two-bill strategy is better simply because I think we can get a victory in early, which will show the American people and the president we mean business,'' she said.

Trump plans meetings at Mar-a-Lago with House Republicans

Johnson, R-La., revived his football metaphor Tuesday.

''We have very well-designed plays," he said. "Now we are working out the sequence of those plays, working with a new head coach, in that metaphor, President Trump.''

Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., among those House Republicans headed to Florida for this weekend's meetings, said he supports the House's one-bill approach.

''You're not going to get everything that you want,'' he said. ''So how do we put something together that everybody can get something?''

Once back in Florida on Thursday, Trump is hosting Republican governors for dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo is one of the governors headed to South Florida, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details were not public. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is also expected to attend the dinner, according to a schedule released by the governor's office earlier this week.

During his first term, Trump was known for changing his mind, a habit that members of Congress became accustomed to as they navigated his presidency.

Trump ally Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said Trump just ''wants all of it done.''

___

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick, Farnoush Amiri, Matt Brown and Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.