Donald Trump Celebrates Victory as Tax and Spending Bill is Passed by US Congress

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Key Points

Donald Trump’s major tax and spending legislation has successfully passed the House of Representatives, with the vote tally being 218 to 214.
The legislation will finance Trump’s enhanced immigration measures and provide tax cuts favoring the wealthiest individuals in America.
Additionally, it will reduce healthcare and food assistance programs while eliminating numerous green energy incentives.

President Donald Trump of the United States has achieved a victory after his prominent tax and spending bill overcame its last challenge in Congress, with the Republican-led House of Representatives narrowly endorsing the substantial bill and forwarding it for his signature into law.

The bill secured passage with a 218 to 214 vote, funding Trump’s immigration initiatives, solidifying his 2017 tax cuts, and offering new tax incentives he had guaranteed during his 2024 campaign.

It further reduces support for health and nutritional assistance programs and eliminates numerous green energy subsidies.

The bill is projected to increase the national debt by US$3.4 trillion ($5.2 trillion), raising it to US$36.2 trillion ($55.1 trillion), as estimated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Despite apprehensions regarding the bill’s enormous 869-page cost and its impact on healthcare services, the majority of Republicans showed their support, with only two among the House’s 220 Republicans opposing it.

The bill has already cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by the narrowest possible margin.

Republicans said the legislation will lower taxes for Americans across the income spectrum and spur economic growth.

Republican representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina described the bill as bringing “historic tax relief for working families”. “Massive investment to secure our nation’s borders. Capturing generational savings. Slashing waste, fraud and abuse in government programs so that they may run more efficiently.”

Every Democrat in Congress voted against it, criticising the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would leave millions uninsured.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an eight-hour, 46-minute speech that was the longest in the chamber’s history: “The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires.”

Trump kept up the pressure throughout, persuading and threatening Congress as he pressed them to send him the legislation by the 4 July Independence Day holiday.

“FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!” he wrote on social media.

A few dissenters within the party eventually aligned after Speaker Mike Johnson worked to gather support among the House representatives throughout the night.

A large group of politicians cheers and raises their thumbs. A sign that says "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" is attached to a desk.

During the enrolment ceremony of Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” House Speaker Mike Johnson and fellow Republicans celebrated with a thumbs up as the bill passed at the US Capitol on 3 July 2025. Source: Getty / Bill Clark

Republicans raced to meet that deadline, working through last weekend and holding all-night debates in the House and the Senate.

The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday in a 51-50 decision, with vice president JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.

What’s in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’?

According to the CBO, the bill would lower tax revenues by US$4.5 trillion ($6.8 trillion) over 10 years and cut spending by US$1.1 trillion ($1.7 trillion).

Those spending cuts largely come from Medicaid, the health program that covers 71 million low-income Americans.

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.

The bill would tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments — changes that would leave nearly 12 million people uninsured, according to the CBO.

Republicans added US$50 billion ($76 billion) for rural health providers to address concerns that those cutbacks would force them out of business.

Nonpartisan analysts have found that the wealthiest Americans would receive the biggest benefits from the bill, while lower-income people would effectively experience their incomes drop as the safety-net cuts would outweigh their tax cuts.

The increased debt load created by the bill would also effectively transfer money from younger to older generations, analysts say.

Ratings firm Moody’s downgraded US debt in May, citing the mounting debt, and some foreign investors say the bill is making US treasury bonds less attractive.

On the other side of the ledger, the bill staves off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of this year, when Trump’s 2017 individual and business tax cuts were due to expire.

Those cuts are now made permanent, while tax breaks for parents and businesses are expanded.

The bill also sets up new tax breaks for tipped income, overtime pay, seniors and auto loans, fulfilling Trump’s campaign promises.

The final version of the bill includes more substantial tax cuts and more aggressive healthcare cuts than the initial version that passed the House in May.

During deliberations in the Senate, Republicans also dropped a provision that would have banned state-level regulations on artificial intelligence, and a “retaliatory tax” on foreign investment that had spurred alarm on Wall Street.