President Donald Trump, six months into his complete reimagining of the wielding of executive authority and at the zenith of his political power, could be hours away from the greatest legislative achievement of his career.
Trump’s big, beautiful bill, with its aspirational title conveying both a scope and simplicity uniquely Trumpian — Joe Biden’s clunky labeled “Build Back Better” never caught on — is two votes in the House of Representatives away from final passage on the Resolute Desk.
The goal is within sight, but first, the master marketer-turned-president known for The Art of the Deal must make the most significant legislative pitch of his administration.
Trump has the momentum.
He successfully secured Senate passage of the bill Tuesday after an all-night amendment vote-a-rama which lasted a record 27 hours. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in a victory for Trump that was as close — and as sweet — as it gets in Washington.
The president wasted little time in publicly working members of the House.
“It is no longer a ‘House Bill’ or a ‘Senate Bill’. It is everyone’s Bill,” Trump posted after the Senate vote. “There is so much to be proud of, and EVERYONE got a major Policy WIN — But, the Biggest Winner of them all will be the American People, who will have Permanently Lower Taxes, Higher Wages and Take Home Pay, Secure Borders, and a Stronger and More Powerful Military. Additionally, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security Benefits are not being cut, but are being STRENGTHENED and PROTECTED from the Radical and Destructive Democrats by eliminating Waste, Fraud, and Abuse from those Programs.”
Indeed, the legislation manages to include almost every campaign promise Trump made on his Shermanesque march through all seven swing states, delivering wins conservatives never could have dreamed of during the Barack Obama or George W. Bush — or even Trump 45 — administrations.
Although Democrat fearmongering on Medicaid reforms has received outsized attention from the establishment media, the legislation not only extends or makes permanent Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — including no taxes on tips, overtime, or social security – but delivers on Trump’s signature issue of border security.
In many ways, the big, beautiful bill realizes the promise of Trump’s 2016 win, during which the mogul destroyed the open borders globalists’ stranglehold on the Republican Party.
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller declared that the legislation delivers on a “fifty-year hope and dream of the American people to secure the border.”
Trump isn’t leaving anything to chance.
His official schedule Wednesday includes no public events, an indicator he is prepared to devote all his lobbying efforts to getting the bill across the finish line in the House, where the first procedural vote is scheduled for 9 am EST.
That timing might slip, as severe storms impacted many members’ travel back to Washington.
But Republican leaders in the House want to move fast, having planned a vote on final passage for Wednesday.
And despite the Senate making significant changes to the earlier House-passed big beautiful bill, Republican leaders want to pass the Senate version as-is to get the bill to Trump’s desk by his July 4 deadline.
A House Rules Committee hearing to prep the bill for its first vote on the House floor last well past midnight Wednesday morning — almost twelve hours after it began.
Committee members Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) expressed concerns that the bill spends more and includes less savings than the House’s first draft the legislation. Both are members of the House Freedom Caucus which has called for further spending cuts.
But Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) were successful in bringing skeptical Senate conservatives on board. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), always seen as unlikely to support the legislation, was the only deficit hawk to oppose the legislation after significant lobbying from Trump and Vance had won over holdouts.
Trump’s success at galvanizing the Senate, a chamber whose proud independence has routinely vexed presidents since the early days of George Washington’s presidency, is an indicator of Trump’s remarkable ascendancy inside the Republican Party.
The 47th President stands unrivaled as the leader of the movement he created, with a firm hold on the reigns of his party that no president has enjoyed since Franklin Roosevelt’s first term.
Trump will aim for similar success in the House, where slim margins mean he can’t afford to lose more than a handful of Republicans.
Yet the first House vote might be difficult.
Hundreds of House amendments were filed in the hours after the Senate passed the bill. Roughly 20 Republicans are threatening to oppose the legislation — either the first vote on the rule, or final passage, or both — without the opportunity to offer amendments.
Its unlikely they get the chance.
Amending the bill would require another adventure through the Senate, eating up valuable time for a bill which ultimately would be unlikely to pass. If the House cannot move the bill in its current form, the two chambers could form a conference committee to work out a negotiated agreement, also eating valuable time.
The House passing the Senate-amended version is Plan A, B, and C for Trump. Ideally they’ll get it done by Thursday, enabling a Friday Independence Day blowout bill-signing ceremony.
A July 4 celebration of the big, beautiful bill’s signing into law would be the ultimate symbol of Trump’s transformation of American politics, one the savvy Trump certainly understands will be a powerful memorial in history books for generations.
Any Republican denying Trump that opportunity will do so at great political risk.
Trump is just getting started in his second occupation of the White House. But if he can get the transformative big, beautiful bill signed into law, that might be one of his most memorable achievements.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye
