The U.S. Senate voted to pass President Trump’s domestic agenda 51 to 50 after a 26-hour vote-a-rama and frenzied last-minute negotiations, Punchbowl News reports.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Rand Paul (R-KY) opposed the bill, forcing Vice President J.D. Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote.
Earlier for members: Will Trump and Republicans Pay a Price?
Elon Musk warned that the Republican tax and spending bill under consideration by the U.S. Senate would enable “abuses of power” by the president.
New York Times: “Some potential monumental news: Democrats say they successfully struck ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ as the formal name of the legislation by raising a point of order against what they consider a farcial and inappropriate title.”
CBS is reportedly nearing a settlement with Donald Trump over a bizarre lawsuit stemming from a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign — a case almost all legal experts consider frivolous.
At the heart of the lawsuit is a single answer Harris gave during the interview. CBS aired the full response, but in two separate broadcasts — one on “60 Minutes,” the other on “CBS Mornings.”
The editing drew some criticism, but the content was hardly flattering to Harris and was plainly broadcast.
Still, Trump seized on the moment, accusing the network of “election interference” and calling it “the biggest scandal in broadcast history.”
He demanded an eye-popping $20 billion in damages — a figure many times greater than his own reported net worth.
The claim has no serious legal merit. No one believes the interview altered the election’s outcome, much less inflicted measurable damage on Trump.
And if the case went to trial, Trump’s odds of winning are close to zero.
But the looming merger between Skydance and Paramount, CBS’s parent company, appears to have changed the calculus. With federal regulatory approvals still pending, CBS seems more than willing to pay Trump to make the problem go away.
As David Corn put it, the whole episode has the feel of “a mob-like shakedown.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters that he thinks he has a deal with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to pass President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” The Hill reports.
Asked if he had a deal as he walked from the Senate floor to his office, Thune replied: “I believe we do.”
He added: “But, like I said, I’m of Scandinavian heritage, so I’m always a bit of a realist. We’ll see what happens.”
New York Times: “Republican leaders have said senators should plan to be in their seats soon for voting to resume. Asking senators to take their seats usually occurs only on big votes like the one upcoming.”
Andrew Egger: “There have been three driving forces behind this bill. The first has been the ‘pass something or everyone’s taxes go up’ pressure created by the soon-to-expire 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The second has been President Donald Trump, who took a shine to the simplicity of slamming together a bunch of things he wanted done into a single package and who has imposed an artificial deadline of July 4. And the third is the Senate’s utterly dysfunctional procedures surrounding the filibuster, which make it basically impossible for majorities to pass new laws unless they get significant minority buy-in or glue them together into a ‘budget reconciliation’ package that doesn’t need 60 votes.”
“What we’re left with is a bill that’s bigger than big and anything but beautiful. Although maybe it overstates it to even say we have a bill. As the Senate barrels to a vote (we think) they’re still crafting the actual text of the legislation. There will be no hearings, no comprehensive analysis, and certainly not enough time to read the thing. Whether it will pass now depends on whether Senate leaders can find a sweetener good enough to woo one of the four remaining Republican holdouts. Would any other institution operate in this way?”
President Trump warned that the Department of Government Efficiency is a “monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” Fox News reports.
Referring to the subsidies Musk’s companies receive, Trump said: “Wouldn’t that be terrible?”
His response followed a question regarding whether he would deport Musk, who is originally from South Africa. Trump responded: “I don’t know, we’ll have to take a look.”
President Trump’s 2024 campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, announced he has joined Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) re-election campaign as an adviser on Monday, The Hill reports.
Colin Allred (D) launched his campaign for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, making a second run at the upper chamber after failing to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz last year (R-TX), the Texas Tribune reports.
“Detentions of immigrants without criminal histories have risen sharply since May amid a broader push to expand immigration enforcement,” CBS News reports.
“President Trump has repeatedly said his administration is focusing deportation efforts on criminals. Until recently, federal agents working to enforce his orders have detained more immigrants with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges than those without them each week, the data shows.”
“But even among those with criminal convictions — about 40% of detainees since Jan. 20 — the majority were not for violent offenses. Overall, roughly 8% of all detainees had been convicted of violent crimes.”
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) “has raised $22 million for his gubernatorial bid since entering the race, a sum that dwarfs any of the two dozen rivals in the race,” Axios reports.
“Shares in Tesla sank early Tuesday after President Trump threatened to go after Elon Musk’s federal subsidies,” Axios reports.
“A few months ago Musk and Trump’s close relationship was seen as the key to making Tesla massively more valuable. Now, their split is becoming more of an existential threat to the company.”
New York Times: “Voting in the Senate has ground to a halt for now, and GOP leaders are using a procedural tool — in this case a quorum call — to buy time for negotiations to continue. They are focused on winning the vote of Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.”
“The ‘big, beautiful bill’ slashes food and health benefits for the poorest Americans, while giving tax cuts to higher earners — blowing a hole in the nation’s safety net, according to healthcare experts and advocates for lower-income people,” Axios reports.
“Experts say the cuts could unleash a tidal wave of pain — overcrowded emergency rooms, an increase in chronic health care issues, more medical debt, and more folks going hungry.”
“Senate Republicans are struggling to pass President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration bill, with GOP leaders still scrambling to secure 50 votes after a marathon overnight voting session that by Tuesday morning appeared to bring the bill no closer to final passage,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump has demanded that Congress send the bill — Trump’s top legislative priority — to his desk by July 4, but that deadline seemed to be slipping from reach Tuesday. Even if the Senate passes the $3.3 trillion bill, House Republicans would still need to overcome their own divisions and pass it again before Trump can sign it.”
An Iran-linked cyberattack group that hacked President Trump’s 2024 campaign is threatening to release another trove of emails it has stolen from his associates, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Roger Stone, Reuters reports.
“The Senate has started voting on their 45th amendment or procedural motion to the GOP megabill. That breaks the record for the most votes during a ‘vote-a-rama‘ — a marathon session provided for under the law governing the budget process in the Senate,” Politico reports.
“The previous record was 44 amendments offered during a budget resolution in 2008.”
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.