On Tuesday, the official social media account for the White House tried to drum up support for MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, but only on right-wing platforms.
The legislation to further Project 2025 through more tax breaks for the wealthy and cuts to programs that serve the poor and working class has struggled since the start.
After the March and May deaths of three Democrats, the GOP held a 220-212 majority in the House of Representatives, where according to the U.S. Constitution all funding bills are required to start.
A Trump tax and spending bill should have been an easy pass with an eight vote majority, but it took almost a week of negotiations, an all night session, and last minute added provisions to get the bill to pass by only one vote.
In the end, all 212 Democrats plus two Republicans voted against the bill, 215 Republicans voted for it, one Republican voted "present," and two GOP Representatives skipped voting entirely.
Those 215 Republicans who supported the One Big Beautiful Bill soon found themselves in the crosshairs of their constituents from all points on the political spectrum. Conservatives, liberals, and libertarians all shared their disgust over some or all of the tax and spending cuts.
The Trump administration claimed their One Big Beautiful Bill would reduce federal spending by $1.5 trillion, but doesn't divulge that's through cuts to taxpayer benefit programs like Medicaid and SNAP or that it would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion by 2034.
With no organic support for his bill, Trump decided to invent some.
An AI-generated propaganda video was (poorly) produced to make it appear a crowded bar erupted into cheers over Trump just uttering the name of the bill. Then it was posted by the official White House account, but not on their Facebook or Instagram accounts.
You can see the clearly targeted propaganda here:
The official White House account posted:
"The bar went silent."
"Then he said 'One Big Beautiful Bill'…
"And they lost it."
"Pass the bill."
"Put it on President Trump’s desk."
"Americans can’t wait any longer."
But even on right-leaning X, criticism and fact checking was quick and abundant.
It turns out the 2016 bar scene—of British football fans' reacting to a match—has been used repeatedly for years.
People found the effort weak and the results pathetic.
But it's no wonder the Trump administration controlled White House social media account turned to such propaganda.
Billionaire tech investor, former Trump administration member as head of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and owner of X Elon Musk took to exclusive interviews and his own social media platform to trash Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill.
Musk infamously called it a "disgusting abomination" which touched off an escalating war of words between Trump and Musk that capped off with Musk divulging FBI director Kash Patel's real reason for not disclosing the full files of underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
And before the proverbial ink was even dry, Republicans were also denouncing the bill—which they'd just voted to pass.
Some Republicans, like Nebraska's Mike Flood and Georgia's MAGA minion Marjorie Taylor Greene, claimed they didn't have any idea what was in the bill before voting for it. Others—like Pennsylvania's Scott Perry who reposted Musk's criticism with a co-signing caption—tried to trash the One Big Beautiful Bill without revealing they had voted to pass it.
Both tactics were soundly criticized.
The One Big Beautiful Bill is now in the hands of the Senate, where major changes are expected if there's any hope of it passing.
Kerry Dolan/Forbes
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