Wall Street Journal: “Trump’s vague promises and cajoling paid off when the House passed the legislation on Thursday afternoon, underscoring his iron grip on the Republican Party. Just two House Republicans and three GOP senators voted against the bill.”
“It was the latest instance in which threats of Republican dissent melted away in the face of Trump’s popularity inside the party.”
Rep. Robert Bresnahan (R-PA) voted for President Trump’s budget, conveniently after he dumped his shares of stock in a Medicaid provider, the New Republic reports.
“The Pennsylvania representative sold his Centene stock in May, just one week before he voted ‘yes’ on an early House version of the budget bill that crippled the health care system. By Thursday, when he voted for the final version of the bill, Centene stock had plummeted by 43 percent.”
New York Times: “In a campaign-style speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, a jubilant Mr. Trump celebrated the bill — and himself, asserting that he was fulfilling his campaign promises and transforming the American economy.”
“But amid the revelry after spending days cajoling lawmakers of his own party to back the legislation, the president now confronts a difficult new phase: selling a bill that polling suggests is broadly unpopular to the American public as Democrats furiously focus on how it helps the wealthy at the expense of working-class people.”
ABC News: Trump takes a megabill victory lap.
Punchbowl News: “The House Freedom Caucus may have to change its name to ‘The Freedom to Vote However Trump Says Caucus’ after what happened this week.”
“The Freedom Caucus was always going to have a difficult time in a Trump-run Washington. You can’t simultaneously pledge loyalty to Trump and then vote against a vengeful president’s agenda.”
“The HFC talked tough but caved repeatedly throughout this process. This latest episode was perhaps the most embarrassing. A number of HFC members said they were going to vote no, issued a three-page document outlining huge problems with the Senate GOP bill, and then they all voted yes, getting nothing substantive in return.”
“I think I have more power now. I do.”
— President Trump, speaking to reporters.
Washington Post: “The sprawling legislation stands to deliver a $170 billion windfall to turbocharge immigrant detentions and deportations. But public approval of Trump’s approach has soured.”
Washington Post: “In a striking dynamic of the Trump era, analysts say, the judicial and legislative branches have been steadily transferring many of their powers to the executive — or at least acquiescing in the transfers. That has shaken up a system that depends on the three branches jostling sharply as each jealously guards its own prerogatives, many critics contend.”
Deadline: “Someone’s playing fast and loose with the real numbers, and, for once, it may not be Donald Trump — at least when it comes to POTUS’ recent multi-million dollar lawsuit settlement with CBS.”
“Never one to let anyone else have the last word or reluctant to craft reality to his own connivence, Trump tonight literally doubled down that his arm twisting and threats with the outlet garnered a much bigger reward than the $16 million parent company Paramount Global wants to admit to.”
Said Trump: “We did a deal for about $16 million plus $16 million, or maybe more than that in advertising. So, it’s a combination of 16 plus 16 plus.”
“History and dismal public polling suggest President Donald Trump’s $3.3 trillion tax bill, approved by Congress on Thursday, could help Democrats win back the House in the 2026 midterm elections,” the Washington Post reports.
“The bill is deeply unpopular — with nearly 2-to-1 opposition, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted in June. But Republicans still have an opportunity to shape public perception of the bill because more than a third of Americans had no opinion of it and two-thirds said they had heard either little or nothing about it.”
“So both parties are racing to define it. Republicans are touting new tax breaks for seniors and service workers. Democrats are attacking the bill as a giveaway to the rich that will lead to millions of low-income Americans losing their health care.”
“Attorney General Pam Bondi told tech companies that they could lawfully violate a statute barring American companies from supporting TikTok based on a sweeping claim that President Trump has the constitutional power to set aside laws, newly disclosed documents show,” the New York Times reports.
“In letters to companies like Apple and Google, Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his ‘constitutional duties,’ so the law banning the social media app must give way to his ‘core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.’”
Ed Kilgore: “Thanks to this bill, Trump could resign tomorrow and still point to an enduring legacy. Quite a few of his executive orders may ultimately be reversed or curtailed by the courts; his key appointees may fall by the wayside out of incompetence and corruption; and some of his policies, like his protectionist tariff regime, may collapse from sheer incoherence. But the 940-page bill he will sign on July 4th will change the country in ways that will be difficult to reverse, even if his party loses Congress and the White House.”
“It is, in fact, the single most sweeping piece of legislation in American history. Other presidents have used the mega-packaging device, known as budget reconciliation, to get around Senate filibusters obstructing their initiatives. But none before Trump have packed a year’s worth of legislation, much of it designed to make major changes in federal policies and personnel, into a single bill, a One-and-Done agenda with no Plan B if it failed.”
Politico: The megabill will soon be megalaw.
The Atlantic: “Trump sued Zuckerberg, Pichai, and the former CEO of Twitter (which Musk later purchased and renamed X) in 2021 for restricting his accounts after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The president alleged that the companies and executives had illegally censored him at the urging of U.S. political leaders, violating his First Amendment rights. It was an ironic argument from a politician who likes to settle political grudges with governmental threats. But it was an effective one: During their postelection courtships of Trump, Zuckerberg settled his case with a payment of $25 million, mostly to Trump’s presidential-library fund, and Musk followed with $10 million more.”
“Now it may be Pichai’s turn. Lawyers for President Trump and Pichai have begun “productive discussions” about the next steps of the case against YouTube, ‘with additional discussions anticipated in the near future,’ according to briefs filed in a San Francisco federal court shortly after Memorial Day that appear to have escaped public notice. The parties have asked the judge to give them until September 2 to come to an agreement on a path forward.”
Dan Pfeiffer: “This is the least popular piece of major legislation passed since the advent of polling nearly a century ago. But how does this vote impact Republican chances in the midterms? It certainly doesn’t help! It’s impossible to imagine that passing a total piece of shit bill that no one wants (and even most Republicans are ambivalent about) won’t hurt them. Earlier this week, I speculated that it could cost them the Senate despite a very pro-Republican map.”
“However, this bill could be a much bigger deal than just one election. It has the potential to break Trump’s coalition and reshape the electorate to benefit Democrats for several elections to come.”
“The Big Ugly Bill could be a vote that Republicans come to regret for a generation.”
“Republicans on Thursday notched the first major legislative victory of President Donald Trump’s second term, a mammoth tax and immigration agenda the GOP hopes will reshape the U.S. economy and unwind many of the Biden administration’s accomplishments,” the Washington Post reports.
“The House, in a 218 to 214 vote, passed Trump’s so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ a $3.4 trillion measure to extend tax cuts from Trump’s first term and implement new campaign promises — such as eliminating income taxes on tips and overtime wages — while spending hundreds of billions of dollars on immigration enforcement and defense.”
“It raises the country’s borrowing cap by $5 trillion, staving off a debt default that the Treasury was weeks away from breaching.”
“The overwhelming consensus on Capitol Hill was that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) would only delay President Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ by about an hour. As noon approached on Thursday, that expectation was shattered,” Axios reports.
“For months, the Democratic base has been demanding their party’s leaders ‘fight harder’ and use every tool at their disposal to stymie the GOP agenda. In the eyes of many lawmakers, this is Jeffries delivering.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the DC Examiner that Jeffries “looks like a bumbling fool.”
“Tax breaks for billionaires — permanent. Tax breaks for everybody else expire.”
— Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), quoted by Punchbowl News, on the Republican budget reconciliation bill.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.