Trump’s seemingly contradictory comments — shared in a Fox News interview Tuesday evening and then Truth Social on Wednesday morning — are also fueling confusion and concern among Republicans on Capitol Hill, who are looking to him for political cover as they contemplate a potentially risky vote.

“You’ve got to look at if it is worth the political struggle to do it,” Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said in an interview. “Entitlements are difficult to deal with.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said he has “concerns” about “the House’s proposal for very deep cuts to Medicaid.”

As Medicaid has expanded in more red states under the Affordable Care Act and the Republican Party has become more populist, its voter base is increasingly reliant on the program, which provides health care to lower-income Americans of all ages.

On Wednesday, the White House appeared to add a new wrinkle by indicating Trump may also be open to altering elements of Medicare — the popular health care program for older Americans he’s repeatedly promised to preserve.

“The Trump administration is committed to protecting Medicare and Medicaid while slashing the waste, fraud, and abuse within those programs — reforms that will increase efficiency and improve care for beneficiaries,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an initial statement to POLITICO.

But after this article was published, Desai sent an updated statement that omitted the mention of Medicare, instead saying only that the administration sought to protect Medicaid “while slashing the waste, fraud and abuse within the program.”

The flurry of pronouncements threatens to further complicate a major legislative push meant to serve as the centerpiece of Trump’s agenda in his first 100 days in office.

The White House has kept in close contact with congressional leaders constructing their budget resolutions, which will provide the instructions for where lawmakers should find savings to pay for tax cuts and other Trump priorities in their budget reconciliation bill. The Senate is moving forward with its blueprint this week, with the House on track to advance its proposal the next.

But throughout this process, Trump officials have remained vague on how exactly Republican lawmakers should use Medicaid to achieve offsets, wary of getting out ahead of a president closely attuned to the political peril of touching entitlement programs who has also shown a willingness to blow up weeks of careful negotiations at a moment’s notice.

They kept quiet even as the House budget would instruct the House Energy and Commerce Committee to slash $880 billion from programs under their purview, with Medicaid making up the lion’s share — ceding to demands from fiscal hard-liners.

But Trump’s support for the House plan, and lack of clarity about what he means by it, has effectively left Republicans without guidance on how far the White House will go in providing political cover for potential cuts, the three people involved in the discussions conceded.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), in an interview, acknowledged the need for more guidance from the administration at this juncture: “We’ll sit down and talk with the president about our specific cuts if we decide to make them, and we’ll work it out.”

Moderates in both chambers are speaking out against the proposal — including, on Wednesday evening, eight House Republicans representing large Hispanic populations in a direct plea to Speaker Mike Johnson.

Still, the reality is sinking in that Republicans aren’t going to be able to pay for their reconciliation bill at the levels deficit hawks require without targeting a popular safety net program that insures nearly 70 million Americans. While Republicans in recent days have floated cutting spending from elsewhere to find savings under the Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction, including energy programs and telecom policies, most lawmakers agree that won’t be enough.

Some Republicans are interpreting Trump’s comments as favoring cuts if they can be sold as making Medicaid more efficient in the long term, highlighting the president’s insistence on going after alleged fraud, waste and abuse within the system.

“Most of the proposals for cost savings are making sure the states pay their fair share of Medicaid,” said GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in an interview.

Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican and a physician, asserted that at least 25 percent of Medicaid spending, or even “closer to 50 percent,” is “fraud, waste and incompetence.”

He continued, in an interview, “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.”

Marshall and others did not cite evidence to support their high estimates and most studies have estimated the level of waste, fraud and abuse in the system at a much smaller level. A White House official declined to specify any policies that would fit Trump’s mandate to target waste, fraud or abuse in Medicaid.

It’s not clear, however, whether this message will resonate as Republicans break the news to voters that they’re slashing access to a widely used and in many cases life-saving program. And now Trump may not even be there to back these members up when the political blowback hits.

Democrats see an opportunity for a political win.

“In 2017, it was very clear that Republicans were doing everything they could to … essentially eliminate Medicaid across America. In the same breath, my Republican colleagues would say they were not eliminating Medicaid,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat who was a member of the House during the GOP’s Obamacare repeal bid, which would have reversed an expansion of the program in many states.

“This is the playbook,” said Luján. “It’s coming.”

Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.