President Donald Trump wasn’t on the House floor for Thursday’s vote on his ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ – but he was there in spirit, including on the right hand of one South Carolina lawmaker voting his way.
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 about a dozen of other lawmakers who were wavering, the president applied his famous fear tactics – as well as a 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 underwater and even some people who voted for it warning about steep cuts to Medicaid or fretting about the estimated $3 trillion it’s estimated to tack onto the national debt.
Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) testified to Trump’s salesmanship in a video he posted of himself leaving the White House after conservative House Freedom Caucus members who were wavering met 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.’
Then Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a Trump loyalist who was walking with him, asked: ‘Did you show them what he signed for you?’
‘Yeah, he signed a bunch of stuff,’ Burchett responded, downplaying it. ‘It’s cool.’
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shows off the Donald Trump gold and silver ring that he wore during the vote on the megabill
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 m’am,’ he replied, before adding, ‘I’m a happily married man.’ The video also shows Burchett gripping a gold challenge coins of the kind Trump doles out, as he did to an African reporter he called ‘beautiful.’
‘Donald Trump absolutely was our closer, and Donald Trump never stopped,’ said House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), whose own role is to line up support for legislation on the Floor. ‘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.’
‘President Trump was in the Oval Office making phone calls to just about everybody in the House,’ said Trump’s economic advisor Kevin Hassett.
There were also threats, including some delivered in public.
‘For Republicans, this should be an easy yes vote. Ridiculous!!!’ Trump wrote in all-caps on his Truth Social site. ‘MAGA is not happy, and it’s costing you votes!!!’ he wrote in another.
Not all of his persuasive tactics resulted in votes. Trump golfed this past weekend with ally Sen. Lindsey Graham but also Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of three Senate Republicans who voted against the bill.
(Victory came in the Senate after leaders offered a series of concessions to Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who nevertheless wrote that ‘This bill needs more work’ and ‘this has been an awful process’ with a ‘frantic rush to meet an artificial deadline.’)
Trump has notably avoided railing against Paul, even while vowing to primary Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who Trump rips as a ‘grandstander’ and who also opposed the bill.
Just two House Republicans, Massie and Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, voted against the bill.
That comes even as fellow Republicans who had wavered ultimately got behind it.
That includes New Jersey GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who had raised concerns that limits on health care provider taxes in his state could and up sapping critical resources for Medicaid.
‘I couldn’t vote for it that way,’ he said, because it would have devastated how the state operates. He said he worked with President Trump directly and got a change incorporated in a final ‘wrap-around’ amendment.
Wilson’s staff member got him the ring. The president signed MAGA merch for lawmakers who were wavering
Rep. Tim Burchett revealed on a video he posted that Trump gave him signed items during a Trump meeting with the conservative House Freedom Caucus
‘I’m a happily married man,’ Burchett joked after getting a hug form Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins after his meeting with Trump
He said he was trying to persuade some of his own colleagues with the misguided view that ‘Medicaid was for lazy people.’
‘We addressed that, okay? But the bottom line is it’s working people, it’s disabled people, it’s nursing homes, senior citizens, a whole array of people.’
Now that the bill is through Congress, Van Drew acknowledged that the fight now becomes a PR battle – with pre-vote polls showing support for Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ is underwater, and a potential risk for Republicans in the 2026 elections. A nonpartisan Congressional Budget estimate said the bill would cut Medicaid by $1 trillion and could cause nearly 12 million people to lose health insurance coverage.
‘So the bottom line is, yes, so now this changes from the bureaucratic public policy process into a policy of who’s going to be a better mouthpiece? Who’s going to articulate the political sense of the ramifications of this bill better? Are you going to be able to emphasize the tax cuts .. So if we articulate that well, if we sell it well, if we talk about we’re still maintaining the safety net, then I think we’ll be okay.’
‘President Trump was in the Oval Office making phone calls to just about everybody in the House,’ said Trump’s economic advisor Kevin Hassett
