Pressure on Republicans after Mr. Trump’s State of the Union Address

US President Donald Trump on the evening of February 24 delivered his first State of the Union Address in his second term. He devoted a significant amount of content to talking about important domestic achievements and promoting a legislative agenda that will likely be blocked by Democratic lawmakers in Congress.

The move implies pushing House Speaker Mike Johnson to find ways to pass bills with only the votes of Republican lawmakers. Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson does not have much time left to bring President Trump’s agenda to the finish line, because American voters in November will vote to re-elect the entire House of Representatives and part of the Senate. History shows that the president’s party usually loses seats at this point.

A bill to take effect must be passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate, then signed into law by the president. The Republican Party holds a majority in both chambers, with 218-214 seats (three seats are vacant) in the House of Representatives and 53-47 in the Senate.

According to the normal process, the bill needs to receive over half votes in favor in the House of Representatives and at least 60 out of 100 votes in favor in the Senate. The Republican Party will need to seek support from at least 7 Democratic senators in the Senate, which is almost impossible. Meanwhile, Democrats can use filibuster, or unlimited debate, to delay the passage of a bill indefinitely.

To overcome this obstacle, Republicans can use the special “budget reconciliation” process, which allows bills related to taxes, spending and public debt to be passed with an overwhelming majority of votes in the Senate. This is also the way Republican lawmakers used in July 2025 to pass the Big and Beautiful Act (OBBBA), helping to establish a budget foundation for President Trump to fulfill his campaign commitments.

Before presenting the State of the Union Address, President Trump responded to the media that he wanted to implement a new tax cut policy for individuals and businesses this year and wanted it to be approved through this special process.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also suggested that Republican lawmakers could use the budget reconciliation process to promote proposals for financial support for retirees.

This is a burden for Johnson, because he struggled to get OBBBA to the finish line in time. And the challenges in a midterm election year could be even greater.

With a majority of 218-214, Mr. Johnson is only allowed to let one Republican congressman “leave ranks”. Thomas Massie, a fiscally conservative congressman who has opposed OBBBA, was almost certain of the spot.

The Republican Study Committee in January released a framework for a second budget reconciliation package, which includes reforms on housing, health care, and regulatory cuts for the energy sector. However, even Mr. Johnson’s allies admit this will be a challenging task.

“Numbers decide everything here,” Rep. Dusty Johnson said of the second reconciliation package. “The question is whether the bills can win 218 votes in the House of Representatives and 51 votes in the Senate?”.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who also opposed OBBBA, said he has always been “skeptical” of budget reconciliation bills, and would prefer a bipartisan solution.

“I voted against many budget reconciliation bills from both Democrats and Republicans,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t like single-party bills.”

The next issue under consideration is tariffs. In the State of the Union Address, Mr. Trump declared “no congressional action is needed” to impose new tariffs. However, his allies, led by senator Bernie Moreno, are still pushing a plan to use budget reconciliation to pass legislation to raise tariffs, thereby strengthening Mr. Trump’s troubled trade program, which was rejected by the Supreme Court last week.

However, this strategy is unlikely to be supported by moderate Republicans in the House of Representatives, because they believe that tariffs are damaging the voters they represent. In early February, 6 Republican House of Representatives voted in favor of a resolution to abolish the tariffs that Mr. Trump imposed on Canada.

House Speaker Johnson also acknowledged Politico on February 18 that legislating Mr. Trump’s tax rates will be a difficult problem within the Republic.

“I think it will be a challenge to find consensus on any legislative roadmap related to tariffs,” Mr. Johnson said.

The Democrats certainly won’t help. They have opposed virtually every aspect of Mr. Trump’s agenda, including tariffs and corporate tax cuts, and vowed to continue this stance going into the midterm elections.

Despite the challenges, some House Republicans still believe they have the ability to pass important bills, even with a narrow majority. Congressman Gabe Evans said that if the House leadership and the White House decide to pursue a budget reconciliation package, it is likely that “its scale will be smaller” to increase the chance of success.

“The Republican Party is a party of independent thinking. We focus on policy, so there will always be debates. But every time someone doubts ‘I don’t know if they can do it’, we still can do it,” Mr. Evans said. “That’s the way to make sure we build a good policy, then unite to get it across the finish line.”