Republicans shape their tax bill around Trump’s vision, featuring ‘MAGA accounts’ and other key proposals.

A few days before Republicans shared their big tax cut plan, the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee had one more person to check with. He went to the White House, where he and President Donald Trump went through the legislation “line by line.”

“He was very happy with what we’re delivering,” said Rep. Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri.

Trump had every reason to feel good. His influence is clearly seen throughout the bill moving through the House, starting with its name — the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

The bill includes many things Trump promised during his campaign, such as a temporary end to taxes on overtime and tips for many workers, a new $10,000 tax break on interest from car loans for cars made in America, and a new tax-free “MAGA account” — referring to his “Make America Great Again” slogan. In this case, MAGA stands for “Money Accounts for Growth and Advancement.” These accounts would get $1,000 for each child born during Trump’s second term.

The Trump-style design of the bill, which took many months or even years to develop, shows how much influence he has in the Republican Party. It also reflects the political reality in the House, where Republicans barely have enough votes and often need Trump’s help to agree on anything.

Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, basically got his role with Trump’s support and has stayed in touch with him throughout the talks, even while traveling abroad this week.

“He’s excited about our forward progress,” Johnson said. “You know, I keep him updated on how things are going, and he’s had a busy time over there in the Middle East, and it’s been good — he’s in good spirits and we’re in good spirits.”

The Republican plan is 1,116 pages long and includes over $5 trillion in tax cuts. These costs would be partly balanced by cutting spending in other areas and making changes to the tax code. The bill would make permanent the tax cuts from Trump’s first term and would reduce money for food aid, college loans, and environmental programs.

As the bill moved forward, disagreements started to show among Republicans. Some are focused on reducing the federal deficit, while others care more about how the cuts would affect their local communities.

That’s usually when Trump steps in, acting like the “closer” who convinces lawmakers to change their minds and vote yes.

“President Trump has gone out of his way to ask us: ‘Are there any members you want me to call? Anybody that you want me to talk to?’ And he calls them right then,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana. “He’s been very involved and very helpful in getting the bill to this point.”

Trump’s role is expected to grow as Johnson works to pass the tax bill in the House by their Memorial Day deadline.

Conservatives slowed things down on Friday, refusing to let the bill move forward in the House Budget Committee unless it included quicker changes to Medicaid and a bigger rollback of green energy credits from the Biden era. They said they would not back down until their requests were included.

Trump paid attention to this, urging Republicans to act before the committee’s vote even happened.

“We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on social media. “STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”

Talks were expected to continue through the weekend. The Budget Committee planned to meet again late Sunday night in hopes of finding a solution.

Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama who leads the House Armed Services Committee, predicted the tax bill would pass once Trump — who had just come back from a trip to the Middle East — started calling lawmakers who were unsure.

“You may have noticed he likes talking on the telephone,” Rogers said.

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee added, “I think the only way we’re going to get on track with it is with Trump.”

This close working relationship with Republican leaders is very different from Trump’s first term, when the party passed a set of tax cuts for people and businesses. Back then, Republicans quickly put that plan together in late 2017 after they failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

This time, White House aides have stayed in close contact with Republican lawmakers as the bill moves through different versions and edits. They’ve pointed out the programs they want to change and what parts they want to add or remove.

The president “is much more involved in directing what happens than the first time because he and the leadership of Congress in 2017 were not seeing eye-to-eye,” Scalise said. “He didn’t really want health care to be the first thing we did, but it was. This time we had a lot of discussions before he was sworn in to make sure we all agreed.”

Trump first laid out the Republican strategy back in January when he posted on social media that the party should pass “one powerful bill” to cover all their main goals instead of splitting the plan into two separate bills.

Senate Republicans wanted to take a different route. They pushed to quickly pass a bill giving more money to the Pentagon and for Trump’s stricter immigration rules, saying a tax bill could wait until later.

Trump hesitated for a while, giving mixed signals to Republicans in Congress. But his first idea of one single bill ended up winning, partly because House Republicans said they couldn’t handle it any other way.

Democrats are strongly against the bill but don’t have enough power to block it if Republicans stick together. Still recovering from their losses in last year’s election, Democrats have tried to build public resistance to the bill, calling it a benefit for the wealthy paid for by cutting healthcare and other social programs.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, called it “one big, beautiful betrayal.”

Republicans, on the other hand, are determined to move forward and send the tax bill to the Senate. They hope to have it ready for Trump to sign by the Fourth of July.

Burchett said that while “everybody rises up in righteous indignation” over the details, Republicans will start “coming to the table” once Trump is more directly involved.

“It’s like an NBA basketball game right now,” Burchett said. “Don’t watch the game. Just wait till the last two minutes and then turn on the TV.”