“We don’t have a deal yet, and so until we have a deal, I don’t think we’ll know exactly what the coalition will look like to get it approved,” said South Dakota Representative Dusty Johnson, a top South Dakota executive. McCarthy ally. “But listen, Kevin McCarthy understands how conservative his conference is. He is going to make a deal that will be embraced by the vast majority of his conference.
As negotiators moved closer to a deal, hard-right Republicans openly voiced concern that Mr. McCarthy would sign a compromise they deemed insufficiently conservative. Several right-wing Republicans have already vowed to oppose any compromise that waives cuts that were part of their debt limit, which would cut domestic spending by an average of 18 percent over a decade.
“Republicans shouldn’t make a bad deal,” Texas Representative Chip Roy, an influential conservative, wrote on Twitter shortly after telling a local radio station that he should “have some blunt conversations with my colleagues and the leadership team” because he didn’t like “the direction they’re going”.
South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman said he wondered how he would vote on a compromise until he saw the bill, but added, “What I’ve seen now isn’t good.”
Former President Donald J. Trump, who has said Republicans should force a default if they don’t get what they want in the negotiations, also weighed in. Mr McCarthy told reporters he spoke briefly with Mr Trump about the negotiations – “It just came up for a moment,” said the speaker. “He was talking about, ‘Get a good deal.'”
After playing a tee shot on his golf course outside of Washington, Mr. Trump approached a reporter from DailyExpertNews, iPhone in hand, and showed a phone call with Mr. McCarthy.
“It’s going to be an interesting thing — it’s not going to be that easy,” Trump said, describing his call with the speaker as “a short, quick conversation.”
“They’ve wasted three years of money on bullshit,” he added, saying, “Republicans don’t want to see that, so I understand where they stand.”
Luke Broadwater And Stephanie Lay contributed reporting from Washington, and Alan Blinder from Sterling, Va.