WASHINGTON As the GOP plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act becomes less of a pamphlet and more of a bill, House Republican leaders are hoping recalcitrant conservatives in their party who claim they can sink those efforts wont be willing to cross President Donald Trump .

GOP leaders are insisting that Trump is with them. Yet nobody is quite certain where the president stands on the current repeal bill or where he ultimately will be.

Republicans were listening carefully to Trumps words during his address to Congress Tuesday night, and while he didnt get out in front of the repeal and replace plan , he did seem to back key parts of GOP leaders yet-to-be released bill.

During a closed-door conference Thursday morning, GOP leaders did everything they could to circle, underline and highlight anything they interpreted as clues that the president supports them. They went so far as to cut up clips of Trumps speech and tie his vague words to specific components of their plan.

In the House GOP leadership edit of Trumps address, for instance, tax credits become advance refundable tax credits a controversial cornerstone of House Speaker Paul Ryans replacement plan that conservatives say is nothing more than another monthly welfare check.

The leadership response is less focused on the policy, however, and more on raw power. Their message to their colleagues at Thursdays gathering: Whatever you may think of the plan, Trump supports it. And thats all you should need to know.

Some members drove that message home totally not at the direction of leadership, they insist when they lined up at the microphones and talked about how Trump was very popular in their districts and how they would get fried, in the words of Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), if they didnt support the Obamacare repeal.