Story highlights Trump lunched with Senate Republicans to help lobby for the plan

He's hoping to win enough GOP support to pass a tax reform measure

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump on Tuesday forged significant progress in his quest to cajole Republican senators into passing a sweeping tax reform bill -- but even as he picked up several crucial votes, he was pitched suddenly into a new international crisis by North Korea's missile launch.

Trump succeeded in winning over holdout senators who had raised doubts about the tax legislation. But his attempts to choreograph a way out of a funding crunch that could soon close down the government hit a roadblock as top Democratic leaders boycotted a White House meeting after he had predicted in a tweet that there was no deal to be done.

A day of political drama underscored the intense year-end maneuvering as Trump and Republicans chase long-awaited political victories after a tumultuous 10 months since his inauguration and Democrats seek to leverage their own top issues. It also showed how grave challenges abroad can rock Washington and quickly put the bitter squabbles on Capitol Hill into a new perspective.

With the fate of the tax bill in the balance, Trump addressed a closed-door meeting of Republican senators, urging them to unite to secure a political win that would finally deliver on the GOP's monopoly on power and at last give him a genuine major legislative victory.

He later described the meeting as a "love fest" and said the caucus was united.

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