Why Two Republicans Voted Against Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill

Two Republican fiscal hawks voted against the “one big, beautiful bill” despite overwhelming pressure from House GOP leadership and President Donald Trump to support the legislation.

Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio joined House Democrats in opposing the president’s signature legislative package, citing concerns about the deficit impact of the bill. A White House statement of administrative policy released Wednesday suggested that voting against the legislation constitutes “the ultimate betrayal.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to follow through on the president’s threat Thursday. She told reporters that Trump will support primary challenges against Massie and Davidson for opposing the bill.

“I don’t think he likes to see grandstanders in Congress,” Leavitt said. “What’s the alternative, I would ask those members of Congress. Do they want to see a tax hike? Do they want to see our country go bankrupt? That’s the alternative of them trying to vote ‘no’ and the president believes that the Republican Party needs to be unified and the vast majority of Republicans clearly are and are listening to the president … Republicans like Thomas Massie and others should take note.”

Though multiple estimates projected that the bill would add to the deficit over a ten-year period, House GOP leadership and the Trump administration argued that pro-growth economic policies, undoing Biden-era regulations and tariff revenue could shrink budget deficits. House GOP leadership also heralded the bill for enacting historic spending cuts. The bill is projected to surpass House Republicans’ goal of slashing spending by more than $1.5 trillion over a decade.

The majority of House Freedom Caucus (HFC) members also supported the legislation’s passage after securing key commitments to make the spending package more fiscally responsible, including the accelerated implementation of Medicaid work requirements, phasing out tax credits for wind and solar projects and preventing Medicaid dollars from funding sex-change procedures for both children and adults. The HFC claimed they helped secure more than five times the deficit reduction originally incorporated in House Republicans’ budget proposal in a post on X. HFC chair Andy Harris notably voted “present” on the legislation.

Massie, however, characterized the president’s landmark bill as a “debt bomb ticking” in a speech on the House floor Wednesday detailing his concerns about the deficit impact of the tax and spending package.

“I’d love to stand here and tell the American people, we can cut your taxes and we can increase spending, and everything is going to be just fine, but I can’t do that,” Massie said. “This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near term, but promises our government will be fiscally responsible five years from now. Where have we heard that before? How do you bind a future Congress to these promises? This bill is a debt bomb ticking.”

Davidson echoed similar concerns about the bill’s impact on long-term deficit spending.

“While I love many things in the bill, promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending,” Davidson wrote in a post on X shortly before the early morning vote. “Deficits do matter and this bill grows them now. The only Congress we can control is the one we’re in. Consequently, I cannot support this big deficit plan. NO.”

Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a prominent HFC member who helped lead the charge to achieve additional savings in the bill, called Davidson’s “no” vote a principled stand.

“And history may bear out that Warren and Thomas were the wise men in this course,” Roy, who ultimately voted for the bill, told Politico.

Several deficit-concerned Senate Republicans are calling on the Senate to pursue more aggressive spending cuts than what House Republicans included in their final product.

“It should be D-O-A. We shouldn’t even be talking about this bill,” Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson told the Washington Examiner. “It’s so awful. It’s so far off the mark. It’s so inadequate. I’ve been trying to interject reality. I’ve been trying to interject facts and figures.”

Trump has called on the Senate to pass his “big, beautiful” bill as quickly as possible.

“There is no time to waste,” the president wrote on Truth Social following the successful House vote.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect Leavitt’s comment.

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