Johnson to quell internal House Republican revolt over Senate changes to Trump’s tax bill
Lauren Gambino
US House Republicans were set to vote on Donald Trump’s signature tax-and-spending bill on Wednesday, a day after it narrowly passed the Senate.
But the fate of Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” hangs in the balance as House speaker Mike Johnson seeks to quell an internal revolt over the changes made by the Senate.
The Senate passed the bill, with JD Vance, the vice-president, casting the tie-breaking vote, on Tuesday, after a record-setting, all-night session. Now the chambers must reconcile their versions: the sprawling megabill goes back to the House, where Johnson has said the Senate “went a little further than many of us would have preferred” in its changes, particularly to Medicaid, a program that provides healthcare to low-income and disabled Americans.
But the speaker vowed to “get that bill over the line”. Trump has set a Fourth of July deadline for Congress to send the bill to his desk.
Early on Wednesday morning, the House rules committee advanced the measure, sending it to the floor for consideration.
In a Tuesday night interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Johnson said he expects to hold a House vote on Wednesday but acknowledged that travel disruptions caused by weather delays were a “wild card” that may impact attendance. In that case, he said the vote would likely take place on Thursday “at the latest”.
The House approved an initial draft of the legislation last month by a single vote, overcoming Democrats’ unanimous opposition. But many fiscal conservatives are furious over cost estimates that project the Senate version would add even more to the federal deficit than the House-passed plan.
Key events
Severe weather is impacting air travel to Washington DC, causing disruptions for members of Congress needing to return for a crucial vote on Trump’s bill.
Thunderstorms and heavy rain forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights to Washington-area airports, including Reagan National, according to the aviation tracker FlightAware.
Many members of the House are opting to drive their cars to Washington instead, avoiding the risk of last-minute flight delays or cancellations. Representative Nancy Mace and representative Russell Fry, both Republicans from South Carolina, posted videos on social media announcing their plans to drive to the capitol.
Trump referred to New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as a “communist lunatic” on social media. He seemed to allude to reports that the White House is considering stripping Mamdani of his US citizenship as part of a crackdown against foreign-born citizens, saying he won’t allow him to “destroy New York”.
Trump wrote:
“As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards. I’ll save New York City, and make it “Hot” and “Great” again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
Speaking to Jen Psaki on MSNBC last night, Democratic representative Maxwell Frost of Florida said that he is hearing at least 20 House Republicans are planning to vote against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” in its current form.
Republicans can only afford three “no” votes in order for the bill to pass, assuming all Democrats vote against it.
Trump defends tax-and-spending bill, saying it will bring ‘growth’ to US economy
Trump is defending his bill, which just barely passed in the Senate yesterday, on social media. He emphasized that the bill will bring “growth” to the US. It is estimated that the bill would grow the national deficit by $3.3tn through 2034, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
Trump wrote:
“Nobody wants to talk about GROWTH, which will be the primary reason that the Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed. THIS GROWTH has already begun at levels never seen before. Trillions of Dollars are now being invested into the USA, more than ever before. Likewise, hundreds of Billions of Dollars in Tariffs are filling up the coffers of Treasury. The Tariff money has already arrived and is setting new records! We are growing our way out of the Sleepy Joe Biden MESS that he and the Democrats left us, and it is happening much faster than anyone thought possible.
Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED! As they say, Trump’s been right about everything, and this is the easiest of them all to predict. Republicans, don’t let the Radical Left Democrats push you around. We’ve got all the cards, and we are going to use them. Last year America was a “DEAD” Nation, with no hope for the future, and now it’s the “HOTTEST NATION IN THE WORLD!” MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Edward Helmore
Donald Trump and administration officials have threatened CNN over what they said was its promotion of a new app that allows users to track and try to avoid Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents.
Speaking to reporters in Florida on a trip to visit a new Ice detention center in Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said her department and the Department of Justice were looking at prosecuting CNN over its reporting on the app, called IceBlock.
“We’re working with Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them,” Noem said, “because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities and operations. We’re going to actually go after them and prosecute them. What they’re doing is illegal.”
Trump joined in, saying the news network – a frequent target of his ire – should also be prosecuted for what he said were “false reports on the attack on Iran”, referring to the leak of a Pentagon assessment that suggested US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and had probably only set the program back by months.
“They were totally obliterated,” Trump countered. “Our people have to be celebrated, [and] not come home to, ‘What do you mean we didn’t hit the targets?’”
CNN defended its reporting of the app through a spokesperson, saying: “This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it. There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN”.
Noem’s comments came hours after Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, also criticized CNN for its reporting on the IceBlock app.
Richard Luscombe
Donald Trump on Tuesday toured “Alligator Alcatraz”, a controversial new migrant detention jail in the remote Florida Everglades, and celebrated the harsh conditions that people sent there would experience.
The president was chaperoned by Florida’s hard-right governor, Ron DeSantis, who hailed the tented camp on mosquito-infested land 50 miles west of Miami as an example for other states that supported Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
“You’ll have a lot of people that will deport on their own because they don’t want to end up in an Alligator Alcatraz, or some of these other places,” DeSantis said.
“This is a model, but we need other states to step up.”
Hundreds of protesters greeted Trump and the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, as they arrived at the hastily assembled camp. The space was previously a largely disused airstrip surrounded by swampland abundant in alligators and Burmese pythons.
Opponents say the encampment, which DeSantis said would open on Wednesday for the first of an initial intake of up to about 1,000 detainees, places unsustainable environmental demands on the fragile wetlands, and will subject those held there to cruel and demeaning treatment.
Trump made no effort to challenge that narrative as he spoke to reporters before leaving Washington DC to travel to Florida, laughing as he made zigzag motions with his hands while offering advice to anybody thinking of escaping.
“The snakes are fast, but alligators [are faster],” he said.
“We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator. Don’t run in a straight line, look, like this, and you know what? Your chances go up about 1%. Not a good thing.”
At a press conference following the tour, Trump was equally dismissive of concerns about conditions in the Everglades, where the daily heat index in July regularly exceeds 100F (37.8C).
“It might be as good as the real Alcatraz. A little controversial, but I couldn’t care less,” he said.
He praised the DeSantis administration for “a fantastic job” in erecting dozens of giant tents in little more than eight days, and saying the camp would “keep people where they’re supposed to be”. Ultimately, 5,000 detainees could be held there.
Johnson to quell internal House Republican revolt over Senate changes to Trump’s tax bill
Lauren Gambino
US House Republicans were set to vote on Donald Trump’s signature tax-and-spending bill on Wednesday, a day after it narrowly passed the Senate.
But the fate of Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” hangs in the balance as House speaker Mike Johnson seeks to quell an internal revolt over the changes made by the Senate.
The Senate passed the bill, with JD Vance, the vice-president, casting the tie-breaking vote, on Tuesday, after a record-setting, all-night session. Now the chambers must reconcile their versions: the sprawling megabill goes back to the House, where Johnson has said the Senate “went a little further than many of us would have preferred” in its changes, particularly to Medicaid, a program that provides healthcare to low-income and disabled Americans.
But the speaker vowed to “get that bill over the line”. Trump has set a Fourth of July deadline for Congress to send the bill to his desk.
Early on Wednesday morning, the House rules committee advanced the measure, sending it to the floor for consideration.
In a Tuesday night interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Johnson said he expects to hold a House vote on Wednesday but acknowledged that travel disruptions caused by weather delays were a “wild card” that may impact attendance. In that case, he said the vote would likely take place on Thursday “at the latest”.
The House approved an initial draft of the legislation last month by a single vote, overcoming Democrats’ unanimous opposition. But many fiscal conservatives are furious over cost estimates that project the Senate version would add even more to the federal deficit than the House-passed plan.
US president Donald Trump’s administration has decided to lift aid cuts for Tibetans in exile and provide $7 million in financing for projects such as those supporting health and education, the leader of the Tibetan government in-exile said on Wednesday.
The Trump administration started cutting foreign aid after taking office in January as part of its ‘America First’ policy, which has had an impact on programmes including those aimed at securing food supplies and preventing the spread of HIV in some of the poorest parts of the world, Reuters reported.
Penpa Tsering, leader of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in India, the government in-exile, said he believed Tibetans became “collateral damage” in foreign assistance cuts and that their leadership had worked hard to restore US funding.
“I’m happy to inform you that the US government has decided to lift the termination,” Tsering told reporters in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala on the sidelines of Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday celebrations.
“We received this communication just day before yesterday.”
Legally mandated US national climate assessments seem to have disappeared from the federal websites built to display them, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their back yards from a warming world.
Scientists said the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives. Websites for the national assessments and the US Global Change Research Program were down Monday and Tuesday with no links, notes or referrals elsewhere. The White House, which was responsible for the assessments, said the information will be housed within Nasa to comply with the law, but gave no further details.
Searches for the assessments on Nasa websites did not turn them up. Nasa did not respond to requests for information. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which coordinated the information in the assessments, did not respond to repeated inquiries.
“It’s critical for decision-makers across the country to know what the science in the National Climate Assessment is. That is the most reliable and well-reviewed source of information about climate that exists for the United States,” said Kathy Jacobs, a University of Arizona climate scientist, who coordinated the 2014 version of the report.
“It’s a sad day for the United States if it is true that the National Climate Assessment is no longer available,” Jacobs added. “This is evidence of serious tampering with the facts and with people’s access to information, and it actually may increase the risk of people being harmed by climate-related impacts.”
Robert Tait
The Trump administration has raised the possibility of stripping Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral candidate for New York City, of his US citizenship as part of a crackdown against foreign-born citizens convicted of certain offences.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, appeared to pave the way for an investigation into Mamdani’s status after Andy Ogles, a rightwing Republican representative for Tennessee, called for his citizenship to be revoked on the grounds that he may have concealed his support for “terrorism” during the naturalization process.
Mamdani, 33, who was born in Uganda to ethnic Indian parents, became a US citizen in 2018 and has attracted widespread media attention – and controversy – over his vocal support for Palestinian rights.
Donald Trump was asked on Tuesday about Mamdani’s pledge to “stop masked” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents “from deporting our neighbors”. The US president responded: “Well, then, we’ll have to arrest him,” Axios reported.
Mamdani posted a statement on X in response. “The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported. Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let Ice terrorize our city,” he wrote.
He continued: “His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation.”
Hiroshima mayor invites Trump to visit city after atomic bomb comments
US president Donald Trump ought to visit Hiroshima to see the effects of nuclear weapons after he compared the 1945 bombings to recent airstrikes on Iran, the Japanese city’s mayor said.
Trump had told reporters:
That hit ended the war. I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, mayor Kazumi Matsui said:
It seems to me that he does not fully understand the reality of the atomic bombings, which, if used, take the lives of many innocent citizens, regardless of whether they were friend or foe, and threaten the survival of the human race.
I wish that president Trump would visit the bombed area to see the reality of the atomic bombing and feel the spirit of Hiroshima, and then make statements.
Ukraine calls US envoy to foreign ministry after some weapons deliveries halted
Ukraine called the acting US envoy to the foreign ministry on Wednesday and stressed the importance of continuing critical military aid to fight Russia’s invasion, the ministry said, after Washington halted some deliveries of ammunition and missiles to Kyiv.
In a statement, it said deputy foreign minister Mariana Betsa expressed gratitude to deputy chief of mission John Ginkel for US support, but warned that a cut-off in aid, particularly air-defence systems, would embolden Russia, Reuters reported.
“The Ukrainian side emphasised that any delay or procrastination in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities will only encourage the aggressor to continue the war and terror, rather than seek peace,” it said.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s bid to end temporary deportation protections and work permits for approximately 521,000 Haitian immigrants before the program’s scheduled expiration date.
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded Joe Biden’s extension of temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians through 3 February. It called for the program to end on 3 August, and last week pushed back that date to 2 September.
The US district judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn, however, said the homeland security secretary Kristi Noem did not follow instructions and a timeline mandated by Congress to reconsider the TPS designation for Haitians.
“Secretary Noem does not have statutory or inherent authority to partially vacate a country’s TPS designation”, making her actions “unlawful”, Cogan wrote. “Plaintiffs are likely to (and, indeed, do) succeed on the merits.”
Cogan also said Haitians’ interests in being able to live and work in the United States “far outweigh” potential harm to the US government, which remains free to enforce immigration laws and terminate TPS status as prescribed by Congress.
Paramount settles with Trump for $16m
CBS parent company Paramount on Wednesday settled a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over an interview broadcast in October, in the latest concession by a media company to the US president, who has targeted outlets over what he describes as false or misleading coverage.
Paramount said it would pay $16m to settle the suit with the money allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, and not paid to Trump “directly or indirectly”.
“The settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret,” the company statement added.
Trump filed a $10bn lawsuit against CBS in October, alleging the network deceptively edited an interview that aired on its 60 Minutes news program with then-vice-president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris to “tip the scales in favor of the Democratic party” in the election. In an amended complaint filed in February, Trump increased his claim for damages to $20bn.
CBS aired two versions of the Harris interview in which she appears to give different answers to the same question about the Israel-Hamas war, according to the lawsuit filed in a federal court in Texas.
CBS previously said the lawsuit was “completely without merit” and had asked a judge to dismiss the case.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Edward A Paltzik, a lawyer representing Trump in the civil suit, could not be immediately reached for comment.
House expected to vote on Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill after narrowly passing Senate
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics as Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut and spending legislation is expected to head to the House after it cleared the Senate last night with the narrowest of margins.
The Senate passed the measure in a 51-50 vote with vice-president JD Vance breaking a tie after three Republicans – Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky – joined all 47 Democrats in voting against the bill.
It followed a long debate in which Republicans grappled with the so-called “one big beautiful” bill’s price tag – it is set to raise the deficit by $5 trillion – and its impact on the US healthcare system.
The vote in the House, where Republicans hold a 220-212 majority, is likely to be close.
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, said during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Republican leadership would seek to move the legislation through the Rules Committee this morning and get it before the entire House before Friday’s holiday, unless travel plans were upset by thunderstorms that have menaced the Washington area.
“Hopefully we’re voting on this by tomorrow or Thursday at latest, depending on the weather delays and travel and all the rest – that’s the wild card that we can’t control,” Johnson said yesterday.
A White House official told reporters that Trump would be “deeply involved” in pushing House Republicans to approve the bill. “It’s a great bill. There is something for everyone,” Trump said at an event in Florida. “And I think it’s going to go very nicely in the House.”
Is Trump’s optimism misplaced? You can read our report on the bill’s progress so far and prospects for today here:
Entertainingly at least, the bill has reanimated the much-missed Musk-Trump feud, with the tech billionaire calling the legislation “insane” and suggesting he could form a new political party if it passed.
In response, Trump claimed he could “look into” deporting Musk. So stay with us for all the developments.
In other news:
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Trump announced on his social media platform that Israel has agreed to a 60-day ceasefire in its war in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the terms of the agreement. The news comes as Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is scheduled to visit the White House on 7 July.
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Trump toured “Alligator Alcatraz”, a controversial new migrant detention jail in the remote Florida Everglades, and celebrated the harsh conditions that people sent there would experience. Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, said detainees could arrive at the rapidly constructed facility as soon as today. Trump later revisited his idea of “renovating and rebuilding Alcatraz”, with a view to reopening the infamous island prison in San Francisco, which has been closed for over 60 years.
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The Pentagon has halted shipments of air defense missiles and other precision munitions to Ukraine over concerns that US stockpiles are too low. On Sunday, Moscow fired more than 500 aerial weapons at Ukraine overnight, in a barrage that Kyiv described as the biggest air attack so far of the three-year war.
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USAID will officially stop implementing foreign aid starting today, secretary of state Marco Rubio said. He added that the US’s assistance in the future will be targeted and limited, focusing on trade rather than aid.
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The Trump administration raised the possibility of stripping Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral candidate for New York City, of his US citizenship over his vocal support for Palestinian rights. Democrat senator Chris Murphy slammed the idea as “racist bullshit”.
