Washington DC – US President Donald Trump on Thursday secured a major political victory when Congress narrowly passed , cementing his radical second-term agenda and boosting funds for his anti- immigration drive.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson (l.) shows the final tally of the vote on US President Donald Trump’s (r.) tax bill on the floor of the House of Representatives at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Thursday. © Collage: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP & Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP
The bill underlined the president’s dominance over the Republican Party, which had been wracked by misgivings over a text that will balloon the national debt and gut health and welfare support.
A small group of opponents in the party finally fell into line after Speaker Mike Johnson worked through the night to corral dissenters in the House of Representatives behind the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
The bill squeezed past a final vote 218-214, meaning it can be on Trump’s desk to be signed into law over the July 4th holiday.
“One of the most consequential Bills ever. The USA is the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, by far!!!” Trump said on social media as he sensed victory.
The timing of the vote slipped back as Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke against the bill for nearly nine hours to delay proceedings.
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US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York talks to reporters as he leaves the House floor after speaking for 8 hours and 45 minutes as the House debates the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act at the US Capitol on Thursday in Washington, DC. © Jemal COUNTESS / AFP
The legislative win is the latest in a series of successes for Trump, including a Supreme Court last week that curbed lone judges from blocking his policies, and that led to a between Israel and Iran.
His sprawling mega-bill just on Tuesday and had to return to the lower chamber for a rubber stamp of the senators’ revisions.
The package honors many of Trump’s campaign promises: boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive, and committing $4.5 trillion to extend his first-term tax relief.
“Today we are laying a key cornerstone of America’s new Golden Age,” Johnston said.
But it is expected to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country’s fast-growing deficits, while shrinking the federal food assistance program and forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance scheme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch.
Some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their insurance coverage under the bill at 17 million. Scores of rural hospitals are expected to close.
While Republican moderates in the House fear the cuts will damage their prospects of reelection, fiscal hawks chafed over savings that they say fall far short of what was promised.
Johnson had to negotiate tight margins and could only lose a handful of lawmakers in the final vote, among more than two dozen who had earlier declared themselves open to rejecting Trump’s 869-page text.
Trump has spent weeks hitting the phones and hosting White House meetings to cajole lawmakers torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring the president’s wrath.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (c.) alongside Republican lawmakers, shows the final tally of the vote on US President Donald Trump’s tax bill, One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act during a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Thursday. © ALEX WROBLEWSKI / AFP
Democrats hope public will help them flip the House in the 2026 midterm election, pointing to data showing that it represents a huge redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest.