Republican lawmakers are urgently attempting to rebrand President Trump’s hallmark tax package after it failed to resonate with voters over the summer. They are eagerly trying to reshape their communications strategy ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
This week, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, and pollster Tony Fabrizio convened with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to strategize on how to better persuade constituents that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will be advantageous for their finances.
The instruction: Less BBB, more tax cuts and families.
A senior GOP House staffer told the Daily Mail that all polling experts advising the conference emphasize approaching ‘working families now.’ He mentioned his boss hailed the rebranding effort as ‘fantastic,’ especially since many constituents are anxious about potential Medicaid cuts.
‘It’s a really smart play,’ he added, ‘we’ve got to stop talking about the One Big, Beautiful Bill.’
In recent weeks, the White House has started labeling the GOP’s major legislation as the ‘Working Families Tax Cut’ following a decline in support for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Republican representatives caught backlash from constituents during town halls within their districts.
A significant portion of the dissatisfaction is related to proposed cuts in Medicaid, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) indicates could strip nearly 8 million people of their coverage. In total, 16 million individuals may be affected by the bill.
The $3.4 trillion Republican-supported law has encountered broad disapproval among voters. According to Pew Research, 46 percent of 3,500 Americans surveyed last month disapproved of the package, while only 32 percent expressed approval. Prior to its passage, a Fox News poll revealed that 59 percent of registered voters opposed the bill, with only 38 percent in support.
President Donald Trump, joined by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), speaks to the press at the U.S. Capitol following a House Republican conference meeting, in Washington, DC on May 20, 2025. Trump first came up with the name for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
The massive measure, signed into law during a July 4 ceremony shown above, approved tax cuts, funding for the U.S. border, cuts to SNAP and Medicaid and more
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf (center), and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (L) at the Captiol earlier this year when Trump convinced lawmakers to back his bill. Leavitt and Blair were back on the Hill this week telling lawmakers how to message the package
The White House officials and Fabrizio held one meeting with lawmakers and another with top Capitol Hill staffers, an aide in the staff-wide meeting told the Daily Mail.
In the session, top aides were instructed to focus on how the bill would cut taxes. Though the sprawling package includes many provisions, including cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
One lawmaker told NOTUS the meeting was to ‘focus on making sure that resources get to the right people, and stop making fun of lazy folks who live in the basements.’
The outlet reported that Fabrizio’s polling found that the tax cuts were the most popular part of the measure.
‘If you call it One Big Beautiful Bill, from a messaging standpoint, that doesn’t tell constituents what the bill is,’ a top House staffer who was in the meeting with the Trump team told the Daily Mail.
‘We need to tell the constituents what the bill is. And from a top-line standpoint, the working families tax cut is the largest substance of the bill.’
Democrats had similar issues years ago when former President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better package passed.
That similarly monstrous measure cost $2.2. Trillion over ten years, according to the CBO.
‘The issue that I’m finding here with both Build Back Better and One Big Beautiful Bill is that they’re so broad that anyone can say anything about them,’ a former Democratic staffer told the Daily Mail.
The ambiguous titles have led to jumbled counter-messaging, the source shared.
A sign that reads ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ is seen by a desk after the House of Representatives passed the US President Donald Trump’s tax bill at the U.S. Capitol
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt held private sessions with lawmakers and their staff on how to message the Trump bill that was passed in July
Speaker Mike Johnson has also been referring to the package as the ‘Working Families Tax Cut’ after calling it by the other name for months
‘Every Dem in Congress has probably had a different name for how to pejoratively call this bill. They called it the big ugly bill, the big bulls*** bill, the big beautiful betrayal.’
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his caucus have likened the legislation to a tax cut for the ultra-wealthy while crushing average Americans.
‘The House Republican One Big Ugly Bill rips healthcare away from millions of people and is deeply unpopular,’ he wrote this week.
Christina Reynolds, a Democratic communicator who worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, noted how liberals should ‘keep calling it the name they’re trying to move beyond.’
A recent poll from the Job Creators Network Foundation found that many small business owners had gaps in awareness of what the Trump-backed bill really does.
Up to a quarter of the small business owners were unaware that the measure included tax rate reductions.
Republicans, however, have picked up on how to sell the package, the Democrat source shared.
‘The only thing that every Republican agrees on is tax cuts, and particularly tax cuts for the rich,’ the Democrat shared.
It takes time to learn how to best message major, multi-trillion-dollar legislative packages, the senior GOP staffer who was in the meeting with Leavitt, Blair and Fabrizio said.
He noted the measure needed time to ‘marinate’ so that pollsters like Fabrizio could get an accurate read on how Americans are perceiving the policies.
‘We passed one of the most historic pieces of legislation, and we need to be able to tell people what it is,’ the staffer said.
