With Tax Overhaul, Trump Fulfills a Campaign Promise and Flexes Republican Muscle

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump achieved a significant legislative victory Wednesday after nearly a year of humiliating defeats in Congress, making good on his promise to deliver what he called a “big, beautiful” tax cut before Christmas and finally demonstrating the political power of unified Republican control in Washington.

Trump will soon affix his signature to the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul that will have broad and far-reaching implications for individual and corporate finances, and will cement the president’s political ownership of an already growing economy that he inherited from former President Barack Obama.

The president’s chaotic first year in office was dogged by investigations, staff turmoil and legislative missteps. But with passage of the tax overhaul, Trump will enter his second year in office with a roster of Republican achievements that he and his party will attempt to sell to voters in the 2018 midterm elections: Lower taxes, more conservative judges, fewer regulations and more restrictive borders.

“This is a big week,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and a longtime Trump supporter. “A wide range of people are starting to say, ‘I like him, the tweets may irritate me, but something’s happened.’ Clearly this was the pièce de résistance, this bill at this moment just before Christmas.”

The president is scheduled to celebrate the tax bill victory during an afternoon event at the White House on Wednesday, flanked by Republican members of Congress. In brief remarks at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting, Trump said it was a time “of celebration.”

“We got it done,” Trump told reporters, calling passage of the tax bill “a historic victory for the American people.” He praised Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate and predicted that, together, they would do even more to cut regulation and improve the economy. “Next year we’re going to go on to some amazing things.” But the president also faces challenges in the year ahead: His approval rating in public polls is at historic lows, with a majority of Americans holding negative views of his presidency. Next year, he will face a congressional majority that will have shrunk to just one seat in the Senate, making it even harder to win approval for the rest of the Republican agenda.

And while his lawyers have suggested that they believe the special counsel’s Russia investigation is winding down, there is evidence that Trump and his associates will remain under investigation for months if not longer. Two members of Trump’s campaign have been indicted, and two associates, including his former national security adviser, have pleaded guilty to federal crimes and are cooperating with the special counsel.

The tax victory on Wednesday was a rare moment of legislative success for a president who has struggled to govern in a city that he derided as “a swamp.” He has repeatedly used Twitter, his favorite means of communication, to demean and belittle members of both parties.

On Wednesday, he struck a different tone, praising Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, for shepherding the tax bill through the divided chamber.

The president’s most striking prior legislative misstep was his failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a Republican pledge that he echoed repeatedly on the campaign trail. In May, the president and his Republican allies in the House held what proved to be a premature victory ceremony over the chamber’s vote to replace Obamacare, a measure that did not pass the Senate.

The tax bill that passed Wednesday includes the elimination of the Obama-era requirement that people buy health insurance, handing the president and Republicans a talking point when they confront constituents who expected full repeal of the health care law.

Polls suggest that most Americans view the tax overhaul with suspicion. In a Quinnipiac University poll released last week, a majority of people said they viewed the tax plan negatively, with only about 16 percent saying they believe it will lower their taxes. Democrats predicted Wednesday that the political benefits for Trump would evaporate quickly.

“He hasn’t accomplished any meaningful part of his legislative agenda since the beginning of the year,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. “As soon as the American people see what’s in the bill, and that it borrows from their children to pay for it, it they will reject it. He promised a middle-class tax cut, but this is a tax cut for the wealthy masquerading as a middle-class tax cut, and not terribly well. The costume is torn.”

Republican lawmakers said they believe the public’s opinions about the tax overhaul would change as more people begin paying lower taxes next year. If they are right, the party could benefit just as lawmakers face voters in the fall.

“I think minds are going to change and I think people are going to change their view on this,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., said on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.

For the president, passage of the tax bill could be even more important — depending on how people come to view the legislation. As a candidate, Trump pitched himself as a champion of working Americans whose interests had been forgotten or ignored by a political establishment that cared little about their fortunes.

If people conclude that the Republican bill lowers their taxes, that could help Trump’s dismal job approval rating. If they decide that rich people and corporations benefit most, the president could anger his own supporters.

“Trumpism, in the end, as a domestic policy, comes down to jobs,” Gingrich said. “As a baseline of the conversation, he has to produce a better economy for anything else he is doing to make sense.”