Donald Trump has reached a point in his presidency that every president must face: how to get Congress to do his bidding.
Different presidents have tried different solutions to the "Congress problem." Lyndon Johnson relied on personal contact with members in what aides called "the laying of the hands" on a member, where Johnson would grab a congressman or senator by the elbow and steer him around the room, not letting go until he had agreement.
Ronald Reagan worked the phones religiously, calling members and engaging in what Lou Cannon, his preeminent biographer, referred to as "the soft sell." In person, it was a different story. Reagan could be quite demonstrative when pressed to do so.
Where George W. Bush was friendly in dealing with Congress, exhibiting the courtly manners of a Texan, Obama was steely-eyed and unemotional. Each man who sits in the Oval Office brings their own style, their own solution to the problem of "herding cats."
Donald Trump, as befitting a successful businessman, prefers the straight-ahead, no-nonsense approach. Republican members of Congress got a taste of that on Tuesday when Trump made the trip from the White House to the Capitol to try and convince the GOP caucus to support his "Big Beautufl Bill."
For weeks, the various factions of the Republican Party — conservative budget hawks, free traders, moderate Medicaid supporters, and blue state representatives — had thrashed around, threatening to scuttle the bill if they didn't get what they wanted.
Trump and the GOP leadership tried to address the concerns of each faction. But the more they tried to put out one brush fire, another ignited over some other issue. Cutting a trillion from the overall budget by slashing Medicaid was unalterably opposed by blue state Republicans in swing districts. Not cutting Medicaid enough ran afoul of budget hawks. Expanding the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) for those blue state Republicans meant that reauthorizing Trump's 2016 tax cuts was placed in jeopardy.
Trump went to Republicans in Congress and said enough is enough; stop haggling and pass the damn bill.
To conservative hard-liners who have been pushing for deeper cuts to Medicaid, Trump made crystal clear that he did not support additional slashing.
“Don’t f**k around with Medicaid,” he said, according to two Republicans granted anonymity to describe the private meetings.
He said he was focused on “saving” Medicaid by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse — echoing comments he made to reporters outside the meeting.
Trump said in response to a question from POLITICO that the hard-liners needed to pare back their demands for deeper spending cuts: “I’m a bigger fiscal hawk,” he said. “There’s nobody like me.”
To the so-called "SALT Caucus," Trump said that upping the deduction from $10,000 per year to $30,000 was all they were going to get, so they might as well accept it.
By all reports, Trump was adamant that the bargaining was over and it was time for Republicans to come together and vote the bill out. By those same reports, he met with limited success — so far.
House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris doesn't think Trump moved the needle on support for the bill.
“No, we are still a ways away, but we can get there,” said Harris.
“He’s comfortable with every faction that exists within our conference,” Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins said. “He is completely respectful of the positions of various factions, including my own, who feel very strongly.”
The opposition to the Big, Beautiful Bill is posturing. There's no alternative for House Republicans, whose campaigns for 2026 will begin before summer's end. Cutting Trump off at the knees by failing to pass the reconciliation bill will bring them all down, including senators running for re-election.
It will also make Trump angry. You wouldn't want to see Trump angry.
