Speaker Mike Johnson had GOP lawmakers working into the night ahead of a self-imposed Friday deadline to produce the package, after having blown past an earlier timeline to draft the contours of the bill that could begin making its long journey through Congress to the president's desk.
Trump's message as he popped in and out of the nearly five-hour meeting Thursday at the White House was simple: Get it done.
“What he does a really good job at is: Here's the end result that I want,” Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., the House GOP Conference chair, said afterward.
On the list for the emerging budget package from the House GOP: making tax cuts that expire at the end of this year permanent, cutting spending on federal programs and ensuring Trump has enough money to launch his deportation operation and finish building the U.S-Mexico border wall.
Trump set the tone at the start of Thursday's session, lawmakers said, then left them to hammer out the details. Republican senators are heading Friday to Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club for their own meeting.
“Very positive developments today,” Johnson said once he returned to the Capitol. “We’re really grateful to the president for leaning in and doing what he does best, and that is put a steady hand at the wheel and get everybody working.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president and lawmakers discussed “tax priorities of the Trump administration,” including Trump's promises to end federal taxation of tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. Renewing tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 also was on the agenda, she said.
