HOUSE REPUBLICANS are barreling ahead to advance President Trump’s agenda, with hearings taking place at all hours of the night as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) seeks to unite a divided caucus ahead of a crucial vote.

Republicans have bounced back this week, days after a big setback.

The House Budget Committee advanced Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” in an unusual late-night vote Sunday, in which the GOP fiscal hawks that sank the same bill last week agreed to vote “present” in order to keep things moving.

“We’re almost there, and I’m very optimistic that we will find the right equilibrium point to get this bill delivered,” Johnson said Monday.

Still, conservative hard-liners aren’t ready to vote for final passage, even as GOP leaders say they’ll bring the bill to the floor this week.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who was among the conservatives to vote against advancing the legislation over spending and deficit concerns, said he and others voted present “out of respect for the Republican conference and the president.” However, the bill “does not yet meet the moment,” Roy said.

Now, the bill heads to the House Rules Committee for what Johnson described as a “clean-up amendment” to address last-minute changes. The Rules Committee hearing will take place at 1 a.m. Wednesday.

House GOP leaders are talking bullish, even though divisions remain. There’s not currently a deal in place to address GOP disagreements over the deficit, state and local tax (SALT) deductions or Medicaid work requirements.

“None of that has been ultimately and finally decided because, as everyone knows around here, we have to build consensus around all those ideas,” Johnson said.

Even so, GOP Whip Tom Emmer (Minn.) says he’ll begin whipping the package as soon as the final language is out. He insists the House will pass the bill this week ahead of Johnson’s self-imposed Memorial Day deadline.

Trump and the White House have begun flexing their muscle on Capitol Hill to secure passage of the bill.

The president will attend a House Republican conference meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday.

“It’s essential that every Republican in the House and Senate unites behind President Trump and passes this popular and essential legislative package,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.

If the House passes the bill, it still faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Republicans are talking about dicing it up.

In tomorrow’s edition of The Movement newsletter, The Hill’s Emily Brooks will take a deep dive into the division between the right-wing activist base and Republicans in Congress when it comes to passing this package. Click here to sign up & get it in your inbox.

Last week’s Moody’s downgrade to the U.S. credit rating over decades of debt concerns that span administrations has cast a pall over GOP negotiations, with the mega-bill forecast to add trillions to the federal deficit.

The downgrade is a boost to fiscal conservatives seeking to reduce the deficit.

The White House downplayed concerns about U.S. debt.

“The U.S. debt is the safest debt, the safest bet on Earth,” Kevin Hassett, the the director of the National Economic Council, told Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo.

“It’s a backward-looking thing, penalizing us for all the reckless spending of the Biden administration,” he added. “But, we’re cutting spending. We’re deregulating. We’ve got supply side growth, as we’ve got every reason in the world to believe that we’re going to have the best economy on Earth.”

💡Perspectives:

• The Hill: The media’s coverage of deportations is consciously manipulative.

• The Liberal Patriot: Have Democrats caught the anti-monopoly bug?

• The Hill: The right and wrong ways to address campus antisemitism.

Read more: 

• These are the top sticking points stalling the Trump agenda megabill.

• Concerns rise over medical coverage losses from ‘big, beautiful bill’.

• Bessent warns tariff could return to ‘Liberation Day’ rates.

• Trump berates Walmart over price hikes: ‘Eat the tariffs’.

• The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to strip legal protections the Biden administration gave to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jakson, appointed by former President Biden, dissented. 

   

• Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), a potential 2028 presidential candidate, vetoed a bill to create a commission to study and recommend reparations for slavery and racial discrimination. 

   

• A federal judge on Monday ruled the Department of Government Efficiency’s takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace was unlawful, deeming it “null and void.”

©  AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Trump said Monday that direct talks between Russia and Ukraine would “begin immediately” after he spent the day on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump first spoke with Zelensky, who appears to be back in the administration’s good graces after he and Vice President Vance were photographed smiling at a meeting in Rome. That’s a big turnaround from their public argument in the Oval Office earlier this year that delayed the signing of a U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement.

Then Trump spoke for two hours by phone with Putin, who described their conversation as “very informative and very frank.” Trump said the “tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent.”

Putin told reporters in Moscow that he’s ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum for a future peace treaty, which could possibly include a ceasefire and a broader framework for ending the conflict.

Trump noted that Pope Leo XIV offered to host negotiations at the Vatican.

“Let the process begin,” Trump said.

There are questions about whether Putin can be trusted to negotiate in good faith.

“Are they tapping us along?” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” “Well, that’s what we’re trying to find out, and we’ll find out pretty soon.”

The Trump administration has taken a harder line on Russia in recent weeks in an effort to pressure Putin to engage in peace talks. The Russian president abandoned proposed talks with Zelensky last week in Turkey.

“We should be able to move beyond the mistakes that have been made in the past,” Vice President Vance told reporters on Air Force Two.

“If Russia is not willing to do that, then we’re eventually just going to say, ‘This is not our war. It’s Joe Biden’s war, it’s Vladimir Putin’s war. It’s not our war,’” he added.

💡Perspectives:

• American Prospect: Trump’s China policy harms the U.S.

• MSNBC: The farce of Trump’s Russia-Ukraine talks.

• The Nation: Nostalgia for the American logger.

• Commonplace: A more patriotic tech industry.

• Eric Schmidt: The AI revolution is underhyped.

Read more: 

• Trump shows signs of losing patience with Putin.

• Netanyahu: Israel will control all Gaza, take over aid deliveries.

• Trump faces serious GOP questions over Air Force One Qatar plan.

• Iran president calls for continued nuclear negotiations.

©  Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP

President Biden’s announcement that he’s been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer has subdued debate about his mental acuity and efforts by his inner circle to shield him from scrutiny while he was in office.

Instead, there’s been a bipartisan outpouring of support for Biden, including from President Trump, who has until now attacked his predecessor at every turn.

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

At Monday’s press briefing, Karoline Leavitt declined to engage with questions about Biden’s health, reiterating the White House’s concern for his wellbeing.

Democratic strategist David Axelrod said on CNN that the growing scrutiny and outrage by some over Biden’s decline during his one term in office “should be more muted and set aside for now as he’s struggling through this.”

Biden’s spokesperson said they were notified of the diagnosis Friday, the same day audio was released of his 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur, in which Biden answered questions haltingly and struggled to remember key details of his life and presidency.

On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough, who vehemently defended Biden from questions about his age, interviewed prominent oncologist Ezekiel Emanuel, who said this type of cancer would have been present for years to reach this stage.

“This is not speculation — if you have prostate cancer that has spread to the bone, then he most certainly had it, you are saying, when he was president of the United States?” Scarborough asked.

“Oh yeah,” Emanuel responded. “He did not develop it in the last 100 or 200 days. He had it while he was president, he probably had it while at the start of his presidency in 2021. I don’t think there’s any disagreement about that.”

The former president and his closest advisers have been under scrutiny over revelations in the new book “Original Sin,” which details how those closest to Biden hid his mental and physical decline, even as he was running for a second term in the White House.

“Why didn’t the American people have a better sense of his health picture?” Vice President Vance said to reporters on Air Force Two on Monday.

“We can pray for good health, but also recognize that if you’re not in good enough health to do the job, you shouldn’t be doing the job,” he added.

💡Perspectives:

• The Free Press: The Biden cover-up.

• Sanity Clause: What the Dems’ real conversation should be.

• The Guardian: Book on Biden’s decline reopens Dem wounds.

Read more: 

• Trump calls for ‘major investigation’ into performers at Harris events.

• House GOP to probe ‘cover up’ after leaked Hur audio.

• Murphy: ‘I think we all bear responsibility’ for Democrats’ 2024 loss.

• Democrats want Biden to take responsibility for loss to Trump.

• DNC infighting threatens to throw party into ‘chaos’.

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