Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds explained on Thursday how President Donald Trump was able to persuade Republicans to pass his “big, beautiful” bill.
The House of Representatives sent Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill to his desk for signature on Thursday, with just two Republicans — Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — joining House Democrats in voting against the president’s signature policy bill. Donalds, on “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” credited Trump’s hands-on approach, attention to detail and business-style leadership for rallying Republicans behind the bill.
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“I was a part of a lot of these conversations and, yeah, the president came in very focused on the details of the legislation — where all the pieces were moving,” Donalds said. “And I know I talked to a couple of my colleagues. Quite frankly, they were very impressed that the president came in and was trying to work with members to get them comfortable.”
“At the end of the day, Donald Trump is a businessman, ladies and gentlemen. If he has to use the stick, he’ll use it. If he has to use carrots, he’ll do that too,” he continued. “He’s about accomplishing the mission — period, point blank. And so a lot of colleagues saw yesterday was President Trump leading the Republican conference to make sure that we delivered on all the promises from last year’s election. We were able to do that.”
The bill delivers on Trump’s campaign promises, such as eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay.
“His leadership — especially these last 36 hours — has been tremendous,” Donalds added. “I told him today: he’s the closer. He closed this deal.”
Conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus, who criticized the Senate-amended bill and vowed to vote against the bill due to its increase in budget deficits, ultimately gave the legislation their stamp of approval. Several of the holdouts said the president’s assurance that he would strictly enforce the phase down of solar and wind tax credits convinced them to vote for the bill.
The House did not modify the Senate-amended bill based on the White House and House GOP leadership’s desire to pass the bill promptly in advance of Trump’s July 4 deadline.
House Speaker Mike Johnson touted Trump’s role in convincing holdouts to support the legislation.
“The president helped answer questions,” Johnson said. “We had Cabinet secretaries involved, and experts in all the fields, and I think they [holdouts] got their questions answered.”
Many congressional Republicans have referred to Trump as “the closer,” because of his success in flipping holdouts to back advancing his bill in a spate of votes since March.
Trump spent significant time calling Republican holdouts on the phone, along with inviting them to the White House in a successful effort to get them to back his bill — during what The New York Times called a “blunt-force charm offensive waged with precision” in a Wednesday report.
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