July 5 (CNN/GNA) – It’s the celebration President Donald Trump has been waiting for.

After weeks of cajoling Republicans into backing his domestic mega-bill — despite lingering concerns about its Medicaid cuts, deficit expansion and political pitfalls — Trump signed the measure into law on the White House South Lawn on Friday afternoon.

He’s turned the traditional July 4 picnic into a celebration of the country’s independence and of his win in Congress, seizing upon the day’s fanfare to salute the most decisive legislative victory of his second term. The festivities included a bomber jet flyover – a nod to the military’s recent strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities – and will feature a fireworks show on the National Mall later.

“We made promises, and it’s really promises made, promises kept, and we’ve kept them. There’s a triumph of democracy on the birthday of democracy, and I have to say that the people are happy,” Trump said on the balcony of the South Lawn alongside first lady Melania Trump.

It’s all how Trump envisioned it when he first set the July 4 deadline to get the bill approved weeks ago. Even some of his own allies thought the timeline was overly ambitious. But Trump’s iron grip on his own party, combined with what a White House official described as an “omnipresent” effort by the president to get Republicans on board, culminated in the bill’s passage in the House on Thursday with only two GOP defections in the chamber.

In many ways, the event marks the payoff for weeks of effort by the president and his team to get the bill across the finish line. Trump invited members of Congress to come to the event, which was also attended by military families who are the usual guests for the Independence Day picnic. He called the legislation “the biggest bill of its type in history” soon before he signed it.

In other ways, however, the moment is just the start of Trump’s efforts to sell his bill to an American public that, according to polls, remains skeptical of its contents.

“We are going to have something where people are going to realize the level of success and popularity of this bill,” he continued.

The bill extends tax cuts Trump first approved in 2017 during his first term, along with creating new ones, totaling in cost of $4.5 trillion. It also boosts funding for immigration enforcement and defense.

To pay for the new spending and declines in tax revenue, the measure cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid, along with cuts to food assistance. But it will still, according to an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, add $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit, which does not include the cost of servicing the debt.

Many Republicans had feared the bill’s cuts to social safety net programs, like Medicaid and food stamps, could open them to political attacks ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

GNA/Credit: CNN