Recap: “I know your district better than you do,” said Trump to Lawler on Tuesday. “If you lose because of SALT you were going to lose anyway….”

Mike Lawler is indeed going to lose because of SALT, but he was going to lose anyway.

He caved on his top priority within hours of losing Trump’s support. Lawler had introduced legislation to raise the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT) cap from $10,000 to $100,000. He settled for a $40,000 cap in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which the House passed at 6:30AM yesterday.

But in true Trumpian style he declared victory, posting this:

First, let’s call out the lie. This is tax relief primarily for the upper middle class and wealthy. See analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Tax Foundation.

Second, let’s highlight that SALT was Lawler’s “number one focus.” In fact, it has been almost his singular focus. And this is the central tragedy of Lawler. All of the legislative time, media appearances and political capital he spent on what? Increasing a tax deduction incrementally mostly for the wealthy, while defending DOGE and massive cuts of critical government programs. Most of his constituents wouldn’t be able to tell you what SALT is.

As summarized in the press, OBBBA (ridiculous acronym for a ridiculous name):

“cuts Medicaid spending by nearly $700 billion, reduces SNAP by $267 billion over ten years, and could reduce healthcare coverage for 8.6 million people, while increasing the deficit by about $3.8 trillion.”

“It is a massive transfer of wealth from the most vulnerable Americans to the richest.”

Lawler rails constantly about the unsustainable debt. Yet he voted to increase it $3.8 trillion by extending tax breaks to the wealthy. The SALT cap increase alone will cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Lawler vowed to protect Medicaid. Yet millions of eligible constituents would lose it because of the strict eligibility requirements imposed in this bill. And not just Medicaid. Because of the size of the debt increase in this bill, it would trigger as much as $500 billion in Medicare cuts starting next year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Also, goodbye to clean energy tax credits.

And Lawler celebrates by posting a salt shaker. Lawler’s small-minded focus on SALT, and abject fealty to Trump and the donor class, will be his demise.