The White House is trying to reassure Senate Republicans worried about cuts to Medicaid that any changes to the program will only target people who they say shouldn’t be on it in the first place.
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act is facing potential roadblocks in the upper chamber as some GOP members, including MAGA loyalist Sen. Josh Hawley, raise alarms over drastic changes to Medicaid that could affect millions.
To ease those fears, the Trump administration is now telling potential Republican holdouts that the planned $600 billion cuts to Medicaid spending over the next 10 years will come from stripping benefits from undocumented immigrants and “able-bodied” individuals who aren’t working, four White House officials and other sources told Politico.
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“Medicaid does not belong to people who are here illegally, and it does not belong to capable and able-bodied men who refuse to work,” one official said. “So no one is getting cut.”
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought echoed that message during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
“This bill will preserve and protect the programs, the social safety net, but it will make it much more common sense,” Vought said. “That’s what this bill does. No one will lose coverage as a result.”
The claim was met with widespread commendation from Democratic lawmakers, who accused Vought of lying about who will lose their health care plan if Trump’s megabill gets passed in its current form.
“The White House is lying to you,” Rep. Brendan Boyle posted on X while sharing a clip of Vought’s comments. “At least 13.7 million Americans will lose their health care, according to the official non-partisan scorekeepers.”
Sen. Tina Smith also shared the Congressional Budget Office estimate that 13.7 million people could lose coverage by 2034. “Math is hard… but Google is free,” she posted.
White House spokesman Kush Desai told Politico that Trump will “protect and preserve Medicaid” by “kicking illegal immigrants off of the program and implementing common sense work requirements.”
Desai also said voters endorsed these policies in November 2024 when Trump campaigned on hardline immigration proposals.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from the Daily Beast.
During a May 25 appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation, House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed about 4.8 million “able-bodied workers” are on Medicaid and “taking advantage of the system.”
“If you are able to work and you refuse to do so, you are defrauding the system, you’re cheating the system, and no one in the country believes that that’s right,” he said.
