President Donald Trump stepped up his sales pitch for his “one big beautiful bill” on Thursday, hosting an event at the White House dedicated to the sweeping legislation hours after it hit a major setback in the Senate.
Despite standing in the East Room in front of dozens of Americans he said would benefit from the measure’s tax cuts, Trump spent much of the time talking about the additional funding for border security in the bill. At one point, he brought his border security czar Tom Homan onto the stage to give an impassioned plea to Congress to pass the bill so that the Administration could hire 10,000 more deportation officers and 5,000 more Border Patrol agents and expand operations to deport more than 1 million people per year.
“What the hell is the matter with everybody up in Congress,” Homan said. “Pass the bill, so we make this country safe, so we can stop the violence against ICE officers.”
Hours earlier, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that several cost-cutting provisions in the bill violated Senate procedures, including a measure aimed at cutting $250 billion in Medicaid costs by cracking down on a state provider tax. The parliamentarian’s ruling has forced Senate Republicans to reshape the bill and threatens to derail Trump’s plan to sign it on July 4.
The bill is the centerpiece of Trump’s domestic agenda. At Thursday’s event, he highlighted the extension of tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term, vouchers for parents who want to home school their children or send them to private religious schools, a tax deduction on tips and farm equipment, and a lifting of estate taxes on family farms. Republicans hold narrow majorities in both the House and Senate and have faced pushback from members over the legislation, much of it over predictions that the measure would add trillions to the national debt.
But some Republicans have expressed concern that the bill’s changes to Medicaid would force millions from the program leaving them without health insurance. At one point, Trump claimed otherwise, saying, “We’re cutting $1.7 trillion in this bill. And you’re not going to feel any of it. And your Medicaid is left alone. It’s left the same.”
On border security, Trump said the bill’s additional funds would triple the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and “dramatically increase deportations to a bare minimum of 1 million illegal aliens per year.” ICE agents are “tough,” Trump said, and he described the cities and towns inside the U.S. where ICE has stepped up its arrests of immigrants in the country illegally as “war zones.” As he did during his campaign, he claimed that immigrants have left “insane asylums” to come to the U.S. and conjured up the threat of the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter. “They don’t want to have Hannibal in our midst.”
After Homan expressed frustration that the bill wasn’t sailing through Congress and returned to his front row seat, Trump looked over at Homan and smiled. “He got so angry he didn’t shake my hand and look at me,” Trump said. Homan walked back up and shook Trump’s hand.
At the end of the event, Trump met with people in the audience. As he walked out, a reporter asked if Congress will be able to pass the bill by his July 4 deadline. “We hope so,” he said.
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