There's a major disconnect between the right-wing activist base and Republican mood in Congress that is adding fuel to the pressure cooker for the "one big, beautiful bill."
Browse through posts on the online right and you'll see endless complaints about Republicans not doing enough to codify President Trump's executive orders, accusations that they have not accomplished anything, gripes about lack of judicial impeachment, and even calls to remove Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) over inaction.
Here's a typical message, as posted by Derrick Evans, a former West Virginia state representative: "Someone needs to make a motion to vacate on Speaker Johnson. Our Republicans in Congress have done NOTHING."
But on Capitol Hill, House GOP lawmakers are pushing through all-night marathon committee meetings and lengthy negotiations as they hash out sticking points for President Trump's legislative agenda of tax, energy, and border priorities, which Johnson said Monday "is arguably the largest and most comprehensive piece of legislation that Congress has worked on in, probably, generations."
The chatter is a headache for Republican lawmakers and aides who see it as misinformed at best or a bad-faith bid for engagement at worst. There's nothing that riles up the GOP base more, after all, than thinking a Republican might be lying to them.
And it's Johnson rather than Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) who is the target of outrage perhaps because the action on the major legislation is in the House right now — or maybe because the conservative base has some muscle memory about how to oust a Republican speaker.
Frustration about codifying Trump executive orders, to be fair, has been fueled by some House Republicans. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) this month led a letter of 17 GOP members asking Johnson to advance more legislation codifying Trump's executive orders, Breitbart's Bradley Jaye reported. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has made major pushes for the House to vote to codify many of Trump's orders — such as the Gulf of America renaming measure, which passed the House earlier this month.
Johnson earlier this month pointed to votes the House has already taken to codify executive orders, such as the SAVE Act requiring proof of citizenship to vote, and a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court. But the trouble is what happens to the bills in the Senate, where most legislation needs at least 60 votes to pass. In a display of that challenge, the Senate rejected a bill to ban transgender athletes from women's and girls' sports earlier this year.
On the matter of impeaching judges who have blocked Trump actions, Johnson has also pointed to the near-zero chance of the Senate meeting the two-thirds threshold to convict any judges that the House impeaches, while noting that the House passed legislation to restrict the ability of judges to block the administration's actions.
Evans, the former West Virginia lawmaker, isn't satisfied by those explanations. He elaborated to me: "Since Mike Johnson and the House Republicans have failed to pass Trump's and Elon's DOGE cuts, they've failed to impeach any of the judges or indict any of the criminals who weaponized the U.S. Government against Donald Trump, and they've failed to pass a clean budget, House Republicans should absolutely make a motion to Vacate the Chair."
In the political messaging battle, though, whether the assessment of a do-nothing Congress and Speaker is true or not is beside the point. What matters is showing major movement in advancing Trump's priorities.
That's why the chatter is adding to the pressure for Republican leaders to pass the "one big, beautiful bill" — which can pass the Senate along party lines and not be subject to the 60-vote rule — or risk even more outrage.
And here's an under-the-radar dynamic to watch if Republicans can indeed pass the major legislation: Trumpeting the bill as a win for the president's efforts to codify executive orders.
"Many elements of executive orders would be funded in reconciliation," a House GOP leadership aide told me when asked about the push to codify executive orders.
Johnson alluded to that as well in a recent press conference.
"We're going to codify dozens more of President Trump's budget-related executive orders, spending-related executive orders, through the budget reconciliation process," Johnson said.
It could be hard to push that message right now, though, due to the sensitive nature of ushering the bill through the Senate parliamentary process, which requires budget reconciliation bills to stay focused on fiscal and budgetary issues rather than other policy and lawmaking areas.
The high expectations of the online right also showcases the shifting dynamics for GOP communications strategies.
A GOP communications staffer not in a leadership office told me that monitoring online chatter and potential viral tweets about their boss has become an increasingly large part of their job — as is battling to correct any skewed or spun messages.
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