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Trump says it ‘doesn’t matter’ whether Republicans use one or two bills to pass his agenda

<i>Carlos Barria/Reuters via CNN Newsource</i><br/>U.S. President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach
Carlos Barria/Reuters via CNN Newsource
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach

By Sarah Ferris, Eric Bradner and Annie Grayer, CNN

Washington (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump stressed in a meeting with the Senate GOP on Wednesday that he wants to pass his agenda as urgently as possible, while downplaying divisions over specific strategy among Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.

Inside the room, Trump delivered wide-ranging remarks about his agenda, speaking about his plans to shut the border down, the need to raise the debt limit, his desire to balance the budget and floating tariffs as a possible way to pay for his plan. At one point in the nearly two-hour meeting, Trump and the GOP senators talked — jokingly — about making Canada the 51st state.

Trump acknowledged to reporters a split between House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune about how to move his proposals to extend tax cuts, overhaul border security and energy policy, set aside the debt ceiling and more.

But he said he planned to leave it to congressional leaders to sort out the details.

“One bill, two bills — doesn’t matter to me. They’re going to work that out. But the end result is going to be the same,” Trump said.

Trump is in Washington for Thursday’s funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, whom he criticized during a wide-ranging news conference on Tuesday. After paying his respects to the late Democrat in the Capitol Rotunda Wednesday evening, Trump met with Republican senators – five days after newly elected lawmakers were sworn in and the party took control of the chamber, giving him a trifecta over Washington power.

Republican senators said he took questions from them in their meeting. “Everything was asked,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said. “Foreign relations all the way to the, you know, to whatever.”

“Everybody’s got the same goal here, which is to provide some big wins on the issues that he ran on,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt.

“He’s ready to roll,” the Missouri Republican said. “He feels the energy, I think, coming back now, victorious.”

Complicated budget negotiations

While numerous GOP senators made the case that they wanted to break Trump’s agenda into two bills — starting with a border, national security and energy package — the president-elect appeared to be open to a single package if that was easier to pass in the House.

“No decisions were made,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said of the strategy. “He heard from us and from our leader that a two-bill strategy is very much alive over here.”

“As you can imagine with him, it was pretty broad ranging,” the West Virginia Republican said.

Minutes after Trump spoke to reporters, Thune reiterated that his conference was firmly behind the president on his package and said the strategy conversations remained in the works.

“We’re all in line with getting the result,” the South Dakota Republican said. “We want to give the House as much space as possible. They believe they can move and execute on getting a bill across the finish line rather quickly. But we are prepared to move here as well.”

In the meeting, one GOP senator — John Hoeven of North Dakota — even suggested to Trump that there should be a “horse race” between which chamber can pass the president’s agenda strategy fastest. Hoeven later said Trump seemed receptive to that.

“It was a unity message,” added Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. But when asked if Capitol Hill Republicans are now on the same page on the strategy, Cornyn said: “No, we’re not there yet.”

Earlier in the day, Johnson, the House speaker, and House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington met with the conservative Republican Study Committee, seeking to defuse potential tensions around advancing a massive and complex spending bill that would serve as the legislative backbone of Trump’s plans.

“There seems to be a new desire to reach consensus,” GOP Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana told CNN about the energy in the meeting with Johnson. “Reading the room, there’s a real focus on arriving at precisely where we can land this plane not just for reconciliation, but for our budgeting process.”

Johnson told CNN that, for his part, he still thinks advancing one bill is the best strategy, explaining that given the diversity of the House GOP conference it “increases greatly the probability of us achieving all of those objectives.”

But the House GOP is a long way from passing that budget measure. In their Wednesday meeting, Republicans were just beginning the conversation about what spending cuts would be included. Even the debt limit lift — which will need to be settled before the House GOP finalizes its budget measure — did not come up, according to multiple GOP lawmakers. And Johnson, who has outlined a tentative April 3 deadline to pass Trump’s big package in the House, has yet to outline to members exactly what will be in that bill.

Backing Trump’s expansionism

Republicans’ willingness to support the president-elect was on display earlier in the day as several of his allies defended his claims the United States should take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, as well as the Panama Canal, and make Canada the 51st state.

Trump didn’t back away from his expansionist proposals Wednesday evening after not ruling out using military action to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal at his news conference the day before.

Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju, the president-elect wouldn’t say if he would send military troops to acquire Greenland or the Panama Canal. Instead, he told reporters that his son, Donald Trump Jr., was greeted with applause during a visit to the Danish territory Tuesday that was “like a love fest.”

“I certainly see Greenland as an opportunity, a great national security addition,” Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said earlier Wednesday. “The Panama Canal, I certainly understand President Trump’s concerns that China has a huge presence there now. And that’s being abused. That’s a national security issue. We’ll see what happens.”

Tuberville said it’s “time to expand.”

“You know, it’s good to talk about. Whether it’s going to happen or not, who knows,” he said.

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said he does not think Trump is kidding about expanding the United States.

“I don’t really want to invade Denmark, but I think it’s hard to deny that Greenland would be a really nice strategic piece of property if we could get it,” he said.

House Republicans’ reactions were mixed on Wednesday. Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon – who comes from a competitive district – told CNN that “they’re our allies; we should treat them that way.”

North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards said that he would “have to talk to the president about his idea,” adding, “behind the logic, I’m not going to render a judgment, just yet.”

Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt called expanding a “great idea,” acknowledging it would be “very ambitious.”

“I think this is the greatest country in the world. And by the way, this isn’t stealing these countries or taking them away. It’s often a better opportunity under America’s flag. I think we should do it,” he said.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Manu Raju, Ted Barrett and Ali Main contributed to this report.

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