Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie revealed in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller that he could vote “yes” on President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” if a “skinny” version of the legislation materializes.

Massie has said he will not support the bill in its current form because it does not cut government spending substantially enough. Massie’s opposition to the bill is one reason Trump and his political allies have threatened to primary him in the 2026 midterms. Pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is also trying to primary Massie, according to a source who spoke to the Caller.

There is a version of the bill, though, Massie said he could support. In a group text with about ten other congressmen, called “Budget Hawks,” Massie said they have floated the idea of splitting the bill in two.

“I can tell you the conservatives in the house are getting antsy with every change that happens in the Senate, and there’s a concern that maybe they need to just skinny this thing down and try to do just a few things,” he asserted, adding that they may try to do “two bills instead of one.”

“The first one should be just the absolute essentials to the president’s priorities, which would be, secure the border and extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” he explained.

Massie said he could theoretically support that bill depending on its impact on the deficit.

“It would be a lot of speculation to say that’s where we’re going to end up. But if we did end up there, and there was a repeal of the Green New Deal subsidies, I could be for that, possibly — I’d have to see the total budget impact in the House,” he told the Caller.

There have been several changes to the Senate version of the bill that have raised red flags for Massie. They stripped the REINS Act Provision — something Massie personally lobbied for in the House version — which requires congressional approval for major federal regulations before they take effect. The Senate is also mulling over a longer phaseout of renewable energy tax credits and whether to reduce the income cap for State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions. Massie said that lowering the threshold would benefit blue states more than red states.

“If they make that tweak, let’s say they limit the SALT deduction to people who make less than $400,000 a year, that means that more of the benefit of that tax provision will go to blue states instead of red states, because to be under whatever the threshold is — let’s just say $400,000 a year annual income and have $40,000 of state and local taxes or property taxes — means that you’re probably in a blue state,” he explained.

“I think the ultimate bill that the Senate passes, if they can pass one, is going to have an even worse impact on the deficit than the House bill,” he said.

Massie speculated that the president’s July 4 deadline is unlikely to be met by Congress and that House Speaker Mike Johnson’s promise to force Congress to meet over the holiday is likely an empty threat meant to appease Trump. The real deadline, Massie alleged, is sometime in August.

“I think they’ll use the threat of canceling the August recess … they’ll take a week off the August recess and say we’re in session, and then they’ll give it back to us if this bill passes,” he said.

Another sticking point for Massie is that he is using a shorter window to score the bill’s impact on the deficit. While the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) typically scores bills on a ten-year timeline, Massie is only looking at the next three or four years. Trump’s plans for no tax on tips and overtime, and tax reform for seniors, for example, are set to expire after three years in the bill.

“The deficit impact is great over the next three years in the Big Bill that passed the House, and it’s only five years out when it starts to go in the other direction because they plan on having those tax cuts expire, and they plan on having that military spending expire,” he told the Caller. “But what will happen four years from now … is they’ll say, oh my gosh, that Congress four years ago and that president set up this fiscal cliff, and the impact to our military is going to be too great [if they let] the spending expire.”

“So we’ve got to use the current policy as the baseline,” he said.

Massie alleged that the House is effectively doing nothing while they wait for the Senate to deliver its version of the Big Beautiful Bill.

“The House is just sort of over here … treading water,” he asserted. “We’re just not doing much in the House. Where the speaker has the House looking like it’s busy … it’s not really that busy.”

AUTHOR

Amber Duke

Senior Editor. Follow Amber on Twitter.

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