“He had fairly well-formed views,” Thune said of Trump, “so it was a process of, kind of getting everybody comfortable with where the thing’s gonna land.”

It took “several meetings and several phone calls,” Thune said, to get Trump on board with a plan to make his 2017 tax cuts permanent — one of the biggest imprints the Senate made on the bill. Trump also had different ideas about how to “juice” the economy and was heavily involved in how far to go on spending cuts.

Thune took the rolling negotiations in good humor. He recalled one early text message in which Trump asked him not to split their tax, border, and energy agenda into two separate bills.

“Big John, how’s our big, beautiful bill coming? I think it should be one,” Thune said, breaking out a Trump impression as he recounted the 10:30 p.m. text.

“And then he used a word I’ve never heard to describe legislation before,” Thune said with a grin. “He said it’ll be ‘glamorous’ — all caps and like five exclamation points.”

TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL’ TAX BILL CLEARS SENATE AFTER GOP REBELLION FORCES VANCE TIEBREAKER

The push and pull is part of a newfound friendship between two of Washington’s most powerful men, one that for a time seemed unlikely. Thune had endorsed Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Trump’s primary rival, in last year’s election but took pains to repair their relationship after Trump won the nomination for president.

Today, the two have avoided the bitterness that defined Trump’s relationship with Thune’s predecessor, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Thune fondly refers to the president as the “closer” and relied on him to flip a handful of fiscal hawks ahead of Tuesday’s final vote.

On policy, Thune strained to accommodate Trump’s tax and spending cut priorities. The Senate spent weeks crafting ways to squeeze Trump’s campaign promises into an already costly bill, and Thune later incorporated the president’s demand that Congress more fully roll back green energy tax credits.

But Trump also gave Thune, faced with a labyrinth of Senate rules and tight margins for passage, a measure of freedom to shape the bill. Thune’s tax writers shaved down the president’s campaign promises to keep its deficit impact in check, placing income limits and narrowing eligibility.

Thune also went further than the House on reforming Medicaid, a bid to win over fiscal hawks despite apparent reservations by Trump. 

“He understands what it takes to get a deal, wants to get a deal,” Thune said in the Sunday interview. “And in many respects, he knows we’ve got to get it done here.”

Thune has not been able to defuse Senate tensions with Trump completely. The president fumed at the parliamentarian on Sunday for stripping dozens of provisions as Republicans raced to pass the bill. 

And Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), one of three Republicans to oppose the legislation, announced his retirement in a fit of anger on Sunday after Trump threatened to primary him next year.

Thune recounted encouraging Tillis in a Saturday night text thread to delay his decision until cooler heads could prevail, though he said Tillis had been “reluctant” to commit to another term for some time.

“This stuff comes and goes. It ebbs and flows,” Thune said.

“I just, you know, I don’t want to see people making decisions in the moment without stepping back and kind of getting a little bit of perspective and taking the longer view,” he added.

Thune has been working to build a durable relationship with Trump since the start of the new Congress and has been successful so far. The White House said in a statement it was “grateful for Leader Thune’s tireless efforts” on the tax legislation, which passed after days of debate and grueling Senate voting.

“We look forward to a strong, continued partnership with the Leader as President Trump fulfills his promises to the American people,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

Thune has not aligned himself as a loyalist in the mold of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), whose frequent visits with Trump and outspoken support help him manage an unruly GOP conference.

But Thune has tried to act deferential, putting a premium on moving Trump’s priorities quickly in a slow and cumbersome chamber. In a matter of weeks, the Senate ushered all of his Cabinet nominees to confirmation without resorting to Trump’s demand for recess appointments.

With the tax bill, Thune narrowly met Trump’s July 4 deadline, giving the House the rest of the week to send the legislation to the president’s desk.