This week, President Donald Trump voiced his support for a House budget proposal that would gut Medicaid, surprising Republican members of Congress. The proposal has received backlash from Republican lawmakers, whose constituents rely more heavily on government-funded healthcare than Democratic congressional districts.

In 2017, Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) voted in favor of repealing Obamacare, creating uproar from his constituents. He ultimately lost reelection in the 2018 midterm elections. Now, his California district is filled with TV ads advising him not to slash Medicaid. 

“It’s a little bit more of a sticky conversation for Congressman Valadao,” his former chief of staff, Tal Eslick, told Politico. “From the perspective of [Democrats], it’s a great attack, and any claims they can make about House Republicans attacking that program will probably be pretty effective with voters.”

According to data from 2023, more than half of Valadao’s constituents are on Medicaid. Valadao is additionally one of the last remaining Republicans still in Congress of the ten Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection related to his actions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Trump, who originally pushed for Obamacare to be repealed in his first term in office, has given mixed signals on its future. Last month, he said he would “love and cherish” Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and said Tuesday on Fox News that “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”

The next day, however, he posted on Truth Social that he was endorsing a House spending bill that would reduce Medicaid spending by billions of dollars.  

Some Republicans have said they will support the cuts if they align with Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s idea of cutting alleged “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the federal government. 

“Medicaid is probably the most broken federal government. It’s something I’ve dealt with on a daily basis as a physician and running a hospital. We can certainly make it more efficient,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) told Politico. He did not provide evidence of this claim to the outlet.

In turn, eight House Republicans, all of whom represent large Hispanic populations, wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to reject the Trump-backed legislation. They said they “fully support efforts to reign in wasteful spending” but said that it was “imperative” that certain programs that support their communities not be cut. 

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“Slahsing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities,” wrote the GOP members of Congress. 

The state of Louisiana, which Johnson represents, has the second-highest percentage of people on Medicaid.