Vice President JD Vance is heading to Wisconsin on Thursday to talk up the sweeping tax-and-spending package that President Donald Trump signed into law this summer — a bill Trump now
admits could use a serious rebrand before the 2026 midterm elections.
Vance is scheduled to speak at a steel fabrication plant, highlighting what the White House says are benefits for American manufacturing. His stop is part of a broader Republican push during the August congressional recess to defend the measure, which polling shows remains deeply unpopular with voters.
Trump himself acknowledged this week that the sales pitch hasn’t landed. For months, he referred to the measure as his “big, beautiful bill,” but on Tuesday he told his Cabinet the label was more about getting the legislation through Congress than persuading the public. Now, he’s calling it a “major tax cut for workers.”
The challenge is steep. A Pew Research Center survey earlier this month found that nearly half of Americans oppose the law, while fewer than a third support it. Many worry it will blow up the federal deficit, take away health coverage from low-income families, and hand most of the benefits to the wealthy. Democrats have seized on those concerns, pointing to a Congressional Budget Office estimate that projects 12 million more uninsured Americans within a decade and nearly \$1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid.
Wisconsin could be hit especially hard. The state’s Department of Health Services says roughly 276,000 residents could lose health coverage under the law, including more than 60,000 childless adults who would now face new Medicaid work requirements. Cuts to food assistance could also cost Wisconsin about \$314 million each year.
Despite those criticisms, Vance has become one of the administration’s chief salesmen for the bill — a sign of both his rising influence in Republican politics and his role as the party’s messenger to working-class voters. Since early August, he’s crisscrossed swing states like Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, pitching the law as a boost for middle-class families and children’s savings.
But the timing is tricky. Many of the law’s promised benefits won’t actually reach voters until after the midterms, raising questions about whether the new message will resonate in time.
Even Vance’s own language has shifted. Earlier in the month, he was still calling it the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” By the time he reached Georgia last week, that phrase was gone — replaced by the more down-to-earth “Working Families Tax Cut.”
White House officials say that’s intentional. “The messaging needs to emphasize benefits for working families,” one official said. “The name definitely does not help, and our polling has started to reflect that.”
For now, Trump and Vance are betting that a relentless ground game and a clearer message can turn what has so far been a political liability into a winning issue before voters head to the polls in November 2026. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, Wikimedia commons.
