President Trump took a victory lap on Thursday night after the House passed his sprawling domestic policy bill, which he muscled through Congress even as many in his party fear it will leave them vulnerable to political attacks ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
In a campaign-style speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, a jubilant Mr. Trump celebrated the bill — and himself, asserting that he was fulfilling his campaign promises and transforming the American economy.
But amid the revelry after spending days cajoling lawmakers of his own party to back the legislation, the president now confronts a difficult new phase: selling a bill that polling suggests is broadly unpopular to the American public as Democrats furiously focus on how it helps the wealthy at the expense of working-class people.
That effort began in earnest at the kickoff of America250, a yearlong series of events to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States.
“Very simply the One Big, Beautiful Bill will deliver the strongest border on Earth, the strongest economy on Earth, the strongest military on Earth and ensure the United States of America will remain the strongest country anywhere on this beautiful planet of ours,” Mr. Trump said.
The president, who spoke for just over an hour in the sweltering heat, reminded his supporters of the executive orders he has signed, the trade deals he has negotiated and the immigration crackdown he has overseen during his first five months in office. But it was what he called his successes of the past two weeks — the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, NATO increasing its military spending and the passage of the policy bill — that particularly pleased him.
“This had to be the best two weeks,” he said. “Has anybody ever had a better two weeks?”
Mr. Trump plans to sign the legislation at a ceremony on Friday, fulfilling the goal he set to deliver the bill by the Fourth of July. And yet, the president and his party are now gearing up for a fight to sway Americans’ views of the legislation.
Mr. Trump and his allies have focused on the bill’s provisions that would extend some tax cuts and create new ones, at a total cost of about $4.5 trillion, while increasing funding for the military and border security. But the bill also cuts roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid, reduces food assistance and adds trillions of dollars to the federal deficit, which Democrats plan to make the centerpiece of their midterm elections campaign. Their effort will be aided by Republicans, many of whom spent weeks raising concerns about the legislation’s deep cuts and explosion of debt before most of them ultimately voted for it.
“I voted No on final passage because it will significantly increase U.S. budget deficits in the near term, negatively impacting all Americans through sustained inflation and high interest rates,” Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky and one of the most vocal opponents of the legislation, posted on social media on Thursday. (Mr. Trump and his political operation are already working to unseat Mr. Massie.)
Democratic political groups have also announced plans to run ads against vulnerable House Republicans, highlighting their support for the bill. They will try to replicate a playbook from 2018, during Mr. Trump’s first term, when Democrats took control of the House on a platform that focused heavily on Republicans’ efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Trump elided those criticisms, and tried to flip the script on his critics. “Not one Democrat voted for us, and I think we use it in the campaign that’s coming up,” he said.
Democrats would welcome the fight. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader, spent more than eight hours on the House floor just before the vote assailing the legislation as he made his way through a thick binder of stories about Medicaid.
“This bill represents the largest cut to health care in American history,” Mr. Jeffries said. “It’s an all-out assault on the health care of the American people.”
Mr. Jeffries said the president had promised that “he was going to love and cherish Medicaid.”
“Nothing about this bill loves and cherishes Medicaid,” he said. “It guts Medicaid.”
Republicans tried to avoid immediate political backlash by delaying Medicaid cuts and work requirements until after next year’s midterms. But Democrats will find some help in keeping those changes front and center: Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, who voted in favor of the legislation, said he planned to spend the next two years trying to undo the Medicaid provisions because he so opposed them.
Just 29 percent of voters support the legislation, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. Roughly two-thirds of Republicans supported the bill in that poll, a relatively low figure from the president’s own party for his signature legislation, and independents opposed it overwhelmingly.
Roughly half of all voters — including 20 percent of Republicans — say they expect the bill to hurt them and their families, according to a Fox News poll. Still, voters are not paying much attention. Only about 60 percent of voters said they understood what was in the bill, and just 17 percent said they understood its contents very well. The polling was conducted before the bill passed the Senate, though opinion about the legislation has been stable, even as the details of the bill have changed.
At the Iowa rally, the president’s supporters cheered his second term so far, with many specifically applauding his efforts to cut off access to social services for undocumented immigrants.
Doug Leinen, a 65-year-old contractor from Omaha, said he was excited about the bill’s measure to eliminate some taxes on tips — a provision that itself was trimmed back sharply from the president’s original promises — but he also conceded he still had a lot to learn about the sprawling legislation.
“There are probably things in there I wouldn’t like, but that’s like every bill,” he said. “I need to download it someday and probably really take a look at it.”
Ruth Igielnik contributed reporting.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
The post In Iowa, Trump Begins Task of Selling His Bill to the American Public appeared first on New York Times.
