Senate Republicans are about to face a major test of loyalty to President Donald Trump, as the chamber braces for its first vote on whether to advance the president’s giant tax cuts and spending bill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and his team have been fiercelylobbyingtheir members to get in line behind the measure, with Trump and White House officials also leaning heavily on the remaining GOP holdouts.
Trump met with two key holdouts — Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — on Saturday, just hours before GOP leaders hoped to hold the vote, according to those senators’ close colleague, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. He has also spoken to other critical votes, like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who earlier Saturday declared his support for the bill. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, another critic of the bill, golfed with the president on Saturday morning, according to Sen. Lindsay Graham.
But it’s not yet clear whether Thune will be able to limit defections on a procedural vote, to start centrists like Sen. Thom Tillis and a small group of GOP hardliners — Lee, Scott and Johnson — still pushing for changes to the bill. But GOP leadership believe they will ultimately succeed, thanks, in part, to immense pressure from Trump.
Already two Republicans, Tillis and Johnson, have said they would block the bill from moving ahead. That leaves Thune just one more vote to lose.
It all amounts to an intense Saturday scramble for Trump and GOP leaders, who are intent on passing the president’s agenda as quickly as possible. Trump has told GOP leaders he wants to sign the bill at the White House on July 4 – but that would still require approval from the narrowly divided GOP-controlled House, which is also no guarantee.
This story is breaking and will be updated.