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WASHINGTON — President Trump told Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) Tuesday to back off on his demand for a higher limit on state and local tax (SALT) deductions — as the ask threatens GOP unity on 

Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Several witnesses in the room told The Post that Trump made clear he doesn’t want the SALT fight to upend what could be a signature piece of legislation

stuffed with campaign promises to extend his 2017 tax reform law while eliminating rates on tips, overtime and Social Security. “I know your district better than you do,” Trump told Lawler,

one source in the room related, with the president adding that if the Hudson Valley Republican loses his re-election bid in 2026 because voters think the SALT cap is too low, then Lawler was

going to “lose anyway.” Lawler, 38, defeated Democrat Mondaire Jones by 6.3 percentage points in New York’s 17th Congressional District last year, a fact that Trump also called attention to

during the discourse. “He gave Mike Lawler some praise but also encouraged him that, you know, he won his race by a lot,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) told The Post after leaving the

meeting. Trump also “made clear he’s losing patience with all holdout factions of the House Republican Conference, including the SALT caucus and the House Freedom Caucus,” a senior White

House official told The Post of the meeting. But Lawler refused to back down. “While I respect President Trump and understand the importance of passing this legislation, I will not do so at

the expense of my district — one of only three held by a Republican that Kamala Harris won in November,” he posted on X Tuesday afternoon. EXPLORE MORE “For over two years, I have been

abundantly clear to everyone from the President to House Leadership about the importance of lifting the cap on SALT. It is one of the reasons why I won and why we even have a House

Republican Majority,” he added. “I will continue to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement and provide real and lasting tax relief for my constituents, who have been besieged by the

highest taxes in the nation. I will not accept anything less.” Lawler and four other blue-state Republicans — Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino of New York, Tom Kean of New Jersey and Young

Kim of California — released a joint statement calling for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “to advance a SALT proposal that delivers meaningful relief for our middle-class constituents.”

“We share President Trump’s call for unity within the House Republican Conference,” they said. “A fair SALT deduction is a matter of fundamental fairness for the hardworking families we

represent, including the many who proudly support President Trump and voted for him, in part, because he promised to restore SALT.” “We have worked in good faith with House Leadership for

more than a year. Our states are donor states, consistently subsidizing so-called fiscally responsible red states,” they noted. Boebert, by contrast, said she was “very pleased to hear [the

president] say we don’t want to increase SALT” deduction limits. “That is a very unfair tax and I’m in Colorado,” she added. “I’m a SALT state. “He doesn’t want to increase SALT. He said,

‘Medicaid, leave it alone unless there is waste, fraud and abuse.’” The current $10,000 limit on the amount in state and local taxes that can be deducted from federal taxes was imposed by

Trump’s 2017 tax law. The current version of the pending bill would lift the maximum deduction to $30,000. The SALT-y blue state Republicans have been pushing for a higher deduction cap —

but face opposition from GOP deficit hawks who have expressed concern about its budgetary effects. “Trump has been in communication with the holdouts and his team makes phone calls all

throughout the night to us individually,” Boebert noted. The president said while entering the Capitol that he was skeptical of completely scrapping the SALT deduction cap. “The biggest

beneficiary, if we do that, are governors from New York, Illinois and California,” he said. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), who chairs the Main Street Caucus, said Trump was “as animated [as] I

have seen him on policy issues” Tuesday. “The president has gotten frustrated with the pace of our progress, and he made it pretty clear we need to quit screwing around and get one big

beautiful bill passed,” Johnson told reporters after exiting the closed-door conference meeting. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), one of four Republicans who briefly stalled the bill in the House

Budget Committee before allowing it to advance Sunday night by voting “present,” didn’t commit to backing the measure when asked. “He’s a great closer,” Norman said of the president. “As a

body, he really closed the deal.” “I’ll read the bill, we’re gonna vote tomorrow at 1 [a.m.],” he added. “Stay tuned.” The House Rules Committee will convene in the early hours of Wednesday

morning to consider the final bill’s text before voting on whether to send it to the House floor. The SALT changes sought by Lawler — or updated Medicaid work requirements — would have to be

included in whatever version is advanced by the Rules Committee before it goes to the full chamber.