As U.S. President Donald Trump worked to pass his signature spending bill, he blended charm and threats, bestowed gifts and bellowed frustration to bend Congress to his will.
In the end, after days of intense behind-the-scenes pressure from the White House, Congress proved no match for a president at the peak of his power.
Trump secured the biggest legislative victory of his second term in office on Thursday when the House of Representatives passed his sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, sending it to the Republican president for his signature by his dictated deadline of Friday's Independence Day holiday.
The measure will give Trump billions of dollars and new legal avenues to press forward with his domestic agenda, ramping up migrant deportations and cutting taxes while rolling back health benefits and food assistance.
One-by-one, major U.S. institutions from the Supreme Court, law firms, universities, media outlets and beyond have given way for Trump to push the bounds of presidential authority in his first five months in office. With its narrow passage of Trump's self-styled "big, beautiful bill," Congress, too, delivered the president a victory that will further extend his power.
"There's no question that it's a capstone to what has been a very strong last few weeks for President Trump,” said Lanhee Chen, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a think tank, and a former adviser to Republicans Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio.
In acceding to Trump’s wishes, Republican lawmakers pushed past their non-partisan budget office and Senate parliamentarian, mega-donor Elon Musk, bond market fears about U.S. debt and their personal doubts about whether the bill’s benefit cuts could shorten their constituents' lives or their own political futures.
Nonpartisan forecasters say the legislation will add $3.4 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion in debt, a prediction many Republicans contend overlooks future economic growth from business tax cuts.
The bill isn’t popular with many Americans: 49% oppose the legislation, while only 29% favor it, according to recent polling by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Pew said majorities expressed concern that the legislation would raise the budget deficit and hurt lower-income people while benefiting the wealthy.
The White House disputed the polling data, insisting that internal polls across the country had found great support for many specific provisions of the law.
Republican voters do want Trump to rule with little interference from lawmakers. Some 64% of Republicans polled by Reuters/Ipsos in June agreed with a statement that the country needs a strong president who can rule without too much interference from Congress or the courts. Only 13% of Democrats agreed.
"It's the rare piece of legislation that can both at the same time be a big victory for one side but also present some political traps for that same victorious side," Chen said.
GIFTS, GOLF AND GOADING
Trump spent recent days wooing small groups of Republican lawmakers from the Senate and House who stopped by the Oval Office or his Sterling, Virginia, golf course.
He handed out branded merchandise and encouraged them not to give Democrats the satisfaction of handing Trump a major defeat, according to people familiar with the outreach. He vented frustration, privately and then publicly, at the idea that Republicans might break ranks.
“FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE,” Trump posted on Truth Social after midnight Thursday as the bill struggled to gain sufficient votes to clear a procedural hurdle. “RIDICULOUS!!!”
A senior White House official told reporters after the final vote on Thursday that Trump was deeply involved in the production of the legislation, going over it line-by-line with senior advisers including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and working through "endless" late-night phone calls with members of Congress.
Trump started working the phones at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday in the run-up to the vote, leveraging relationships built during dinners and engagements at the White House and at his Florida estate in Palm Beach, the official said.
Ultimately, only two House Republicans ended up joining Democrats to vote against the bill.
Hyma Moore, a Democratic strategist, said Trump will pay little long-term political price for pushing an unpopular bill because he is a term-limited president. Republicans seeking future office may have to deal with the consequences, however.
Deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance along with growing U.S. government debt are certain to figure in the 2026 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to take advantage of the longstanding tendency of voters to hand the opposition party more control of Congress.
Two Republicans, Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska and Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, have already announced their retirements in recent days after clashing with Trump, potentially giving Democrats an easier path to pick up those seats.
"He’s a lame duck, there’s not much of a price he can pay at this point,” Moore said of Trump. “Next step is more GOP (Republican) in-fighting as the primaries shape up.”
While Republican lawmakers in tough districts fight to keep their jobs, the bill they just passed will empower Trump to govern as freely as ever.
