How Trump won over Republicans on Big Beautiful Bill
Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, was sporting a custom ring on the big day with a golden image of the president's face as he cast his vote for the mega-bill that extended Trump's 2017 tax cuts. With Wilson's help, the massive bill passed 218–214 after a pressure campaign by Trump and congressional leaders kept lawmakers working overnight.
'It's gold Donald Trump on silver. You don't see it every day,' Wilson told the Daily Mail about the special jewelry he wore for the occasion. 'One of my staff was kind enough to get it for me,' he explained. Wilson's vote wasn't considered up for grabs, which may be why his staff came up with its own special Trump swag.
For the dozen or so lawmakers who were wavering, the president applied his famous fear tactics – as well as charm and even an array of signed swag – to get Republicans to push the mammoth bill across the finish line. That came despite polls showing the bill was underwater, and even some supporters warning about steep cuts to Medicaid or fretting over the estimated $3 trillion it's expected to tack onto the national debt.
Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) testified to Trump's salesmanship in a video he posted after meeting with the president. 'The president was wonderful, as always,' Burchett gushed. 'Informative, funny, he told me he likes seeing me on TV, which was kind of cool.' Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a Trump loyalist, asked, 'Did you show them what he signed for you?' Burchett replied, 'Yeah, he signed a bunch of stuff. It's cool.'
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins also poured on the charm when she ran into Burchett outside the White House, offering a hug and asking, 'Are we getting it done?' 'Yes ma'am,' he replied, before adding, 'I'm a happily married man.' The video also shows Burchett gripping a gold challenge coin of the kind Trump doles out, as he did to an African reporter he once called 'beautiful.'
'Donald Trump absolutely was our closer, and Donald Trump never stopped,' said House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). 'Every day [he] was there in the fight [asking] "Who do I need to call? What do I need to do?"' Scalise said no president was 'more directly engaged.' Trump's economic advisor Kevin Hassett added, 'President Trump was in the Oval Office making phone calls to just about everybody in the House.' Not all of Trump's persuasive tactics worked. He golfed with ally Sen. Lindsey Graham and also with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of three Senate Republicans who voted against the bill. Trump has notably avoided criticizing Paul but has vowed to primary Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who he ripped as a 'grandstander' for opposing the bill. Only Massie and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) voted against it in the House.
Even lawmakers who had previously objected, like Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), ended up backing the bill after securing changes. Van Drew said limits on healthcare provider taxes would have devastated Medicaid in his state. 'I couldn't vote for it that way,' he said, but added he worked with Trump directly to get a change added in a final 'wrap-around' amendment. With the bill now passed, Van Drew acknowledged it becomes a messaging battle, given the CBO's projection that it could cut Medicaid by $1 trillion and cause nearly 12 million people to lose coverage. 'So now this changes from public policy into a policy of who's going to be a better mouthpiece... If we articulate that well, if we sell it well, if we talk about how we're still maintaining the safety net, then I think we'll be okay.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Federal agency opens inquiry into ex-special counsel Jack Smith over Trump investigations
The US office of special counsel, an independent federal agency, confirmed to NBC News on Saturday that it is investigating former Department of Justice prosecutor Jack Smith for possible violations of the Hatch Act. Smith led investigations into Donald Trump's part in January 6 US Capitol riot and alleged mishandling of classified documents. The confirmation of an investigation comes after Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, a Republican, requested last week that Smith, 56, be investigated for 'unprecedented interference in the 2024 election'. The Hatch Act, a federal law passed in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal employees. Trump, along with other prominent Republican lawmakers, have argued that Smith's investigations into Trump amounted to illegal political activity. Smith was appointed as special counsel by then attorney general Merrick Garland in 2022 – three days after Trump announced his bid for a second term – to investigate potential interference with the 2020 election and the handling of classified documents. However, the US office of special counsel, the federal agency investigating Smith, is different from the type of justice department-appointed special counsel position that was held by Smith. As an independent federal agency, it lacks the power to bring criminal charges, but can instead seek disciplinary action for a federal government employee or refer its findings to the justice department for investigation. In a series of social media posts on Wednesday, Cotton said that Smith's legal actions 'were nothing more than a tool for the Biden and Harris campaigns. This isn't just unethical, it is very likely illegal campaign activity from a public office.' Cotton said Smith 'pushed for an out-of-the-ordinary, rushed trial for President Trump, with jury selection to begin just two weeks before the Iowa caucuses. No other case of this magnitude and complexity would come to trial this quickly.' Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Smith ultimately brought two criminal indictments against Trump in 2023 but resigned in January this year before either came to trial. His resignation came soon after the justice department asked a federal appeals court to reverse a judge's order, blocking the release of his investigative report focused on Trump's alleged efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election. A second Smith-authored report, into Trump's handling of classified documents, was also blocked from publication.
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Trump calls nuclear bluff of Russia's hawk-in-chief
Normally, when the US acts against Russia, Vladimir Putin is quick to respond in kind: sanction for sanction, travel ban for travel ban, expulsion for expulsion. 'Proportional reciprocation' and 'symmetrical response' are staples of the Kremlin lexicon, usually accompanied by howls of outrage, denouncing Washington's provocations. Yet since Donald Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to steam towards Russia on Friday – an unusually dramatic gesture for any US president and one that would typically signal a grave geopolitical crisis – Putin has been uncharacteristically silent. Were Putin to follow his own doctrines of reciprocity, Russian submarines would now be heading towards the United States and the world would be holding its breath. Instead, he has recognised the obvious: Mr Trump's move is more about theatre than altering the US nuclear posture. The president is playing a game all too familiar to the Russians. The Kremlin has been bandying about nuclear threats since even before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with none more loud than Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's clownish sidekick and chief social media warrior. This week, Mr Medvedev, who was Russia's president from 2008 to 2012 and prime minister from 2012 to 2020, called the latest US deadline for Moscow to accept ceasefire talks a 'step towards war', and warned Mr Trump that Russia possessed nuclear strike capabilities of last resort. It was this war of words that prompted Mr Trump to order nuclear submarines closer to Russia. In doing so, he has essentially called Russia's bluff and may well feel vindicated by the Kremlin's silence. The outrage instead came from pro-Kremlin military commentators in the Russian media, with one accusing Mr Trump of 'throwing a temper tantrum' while another dismissed the submarine deployment as 'meaningless blather'. But by swatting away Mr Medvedev's threats, the US president has given him a relevance he rarely enjoys – for all his mouthiness – either at home or abroad. Hailed by European optimists as a pro-Western reformer when he took over as president from Putin in 2008, Mr Medvedev styled himself as a tech-loving moderniser and defender of civil liberties In reality, he was never the champion of Russia's Western-oriented middle class that he pretended to be. He proved instead to be a mere placeholder while he helped Putin perform a constitutional sleight of hand that reset the clock on his presidency. Ordinary Russians likened the charade to Gogol's play The Government Inspector, in which a fraudster impersonates a powerful official only for the real inspector to appear in the final scene. Cynical though it was, most Russians accepted the ruse. Since Putin's return, Mr Medvedev has been sidelined, seeking relevance from the periphery by turning himself into an ever more bombastic caricature of his former self – one even Russians struggle to take seriously. Last year, The Insider, an anti-Kremlin investigative site, reported that Mr Medvedev's most 'unhinged' social media posts often appeared shortly after deliveries from his Tuscan vineyard arrived at his Moscow address. Rumours of Mr Medvedev's drinking have swirled for over a decade, growing louder as his fulminations against the 'bastards and degenerates' in Kyiv have intensified and footage emerged of him nodding off at a series of official events. Alcohol might explain part of his transformation from a Western-courting politician to someone who now denounces Western leaders as a 'pack of grunting pigs'. But it is more likely that he simply craves attention – and Mr Trump has just given it to him, even if the US president describes him as a 'failed' has-been. The real target of the submarine manoeuvre is almost certainly Putin himself – a man Mr Trump admires but has grown frustrated with because of his refusal to make concessions on Ukraine. Matters are coming to a head, with Mr Trump vowing to impose sanctions on Russia and tariffs on countries buying its energy unless Moscow agrees to a ceasefire by Aug 8. So far, Putin has remained unmoved, seemingly calculating that Washington will retreat from secondary tariffs, which would hurt Russia's energy-dependent economy but also carry significant diplomatic costs for Mr Trump. With time running out ahead of the real showdown, the submarine move should be seen as an attempt to ratchet up pressure on Putin. In that light, the Kremlin's silence looks less like a triumph for the US president than evidence that the Russian leader has not blinked – yet.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Donald Trump may finally have the measure of Putin
Donald Trump turned out to be wrong, although it may not be tactful to point it out, because the world still needs him to support Ukraine, however grudgingly. But we told him that Vladimir Putin had no interest in making peace, and so it has proved. President Trump thought he could persuade the Russian leader to cut a deal over Ukraine. That approach might not have been as misconceived as it sometimes seemed. It might have been possible that a combination of appeasement, flattery and strong-man talk would have worked. But Putin has shown that he is not interested in negotiation. His belief in a Greater Russia, and possibly his need to wage a permanent war in order to maintain his grip on power, means that the bloodshed will continue, and even Mr Trump can see where the blame lies. It was encouraging, therefore, that Mr Trump shortened the deadline for Russia to avoid enhanced sanctions over the Ukraine war to '10 to 12 days' a few days ago. Mr Trump's deadlines are notoriously variable, but the president's meaning was clear. Equally, Mr Trump's war of words with Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's associate and the former president of Russia, confirms that there is little common ground left between Washington and Moscow. The social media spat culminated in Mr Trump sending two United States nuclear submarines to patrol 'near Russia' – after Medvedev warned the US against being drawn into direct conflict with a nuclear power. Mr Trump should never have threatened to withdraw the US's support for the Ukrainian people, but we should be grateful that he failed to follow through on that threat, even if the precise level of current US support for Volodymyr Zelensky's war effort is shrouded in secrecy. Maybe it was worth trying to do a deal with Putin, although it besmirched the reputation of American democracy that Mr Trump should have subjected Mr Zelensky – a brave leader fighting for his people in a noble cause – to that disgraceful theatrical display in the White House in February. Maybe it was worth Mr Trump rudely waking the peoples of Europe to their responsibility to meet a greater share of the cost of defending their continent. But it should never have been at the expense of the defence of the right of a free people to resist aggression. The international community bore, and continues to bear, a moral duty to defend democracy, human rights and the right to self-determination. All democracies should stand by the Ukrainian people in their time of need, however long that time shall be. No one wants the war to continue for a moment longer, but Mr Trump is now as clear as the rest of the world has been that Putin is responsible for prolonging the bloodshed. The war could end today if Putin wanted it to. For all the capriciousness of the US president, and for all the bombast of his social media communications, it seems that Mr Trump understands that Putin, and his proxy Medvedev, must not be appeased. Sending US nuclear submarines to patrol 'near Russia' is a symbolic gesture, but if what it symbolises is an increased willingness on the part of Mr Trump to support Ukraine against Putin's aggression, then it is to be welcomed.
