WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on July 1 said that he would accept the “One Big Beautiful Act” after the July 4 deadline he set for the bill’s passage.
Just after noon on July 1, the U.S. Senate passed the bill after spending nearly 24 hours in continuous session voting on dozens of amendments and points of order against the bill. Several Republicans had dissented, including Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
Republicans in both houses of Congress have been racing to meet the July 4 deadline that Trump requested on June 27.
Now that the Senate has approved its version, both houses need to reconcile their differences and produce a compromise text that they must pass, again, word for word.
Given the lack of consensus among Republicans, Trump suggested that he would be flexible about the deadline. There is no legal requirement to pass the bill by July 4, although its provisions that raise the federal debt limit are essential to preventing a sovereign default by the United States sometime within the next few months.
“This is very complicated, because it’s very big, with a lot of areas,” Trump said about the bill on Tuesday morning at the White House before departing for Florida.
“I'd love to do July 4th, but I think it’s very hard to do July 4th. It was two months ago, I would think maybe July 4th, but somewhere around there.”
The bill’s most controversial provisions are spending cuts to Medicaid, a federal-state health insurance program that covers low-income Americans. Republicans in Congress who represent large rural populations have spoken out against these reforms, saying they will cut insurance for their constituents.
Trump has contended that the bill would not lead to devastating cuts.
“I don’t want to go too crazy with cuts. I don’t like cuts,” he said on Tuesday. “There are certain things that have been cut, which is good. I think we’re doing well. We’re going to have to see.”
Trump has threatened to back primary challenges against Republicans who vote against the bill, a threat that preceded Tillis’s announcement that he would retire rather than seek reelection in 2026. Trump is already raising the prospects of a primary challenge against Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a House member who is that body’s chief GOP critic of the bill.
Conversely, Elon Musk—the world’s richest man, who until recently was a senior member of the Trump administration—has opposed the One Big Beautiful Bill and threatened to fund primary challenges against Republicans who support it.
Trump, during his remarks, spoke derisively of Musk and suggested that he would order the Department of Government Efficiency, an agency that Musk once led, to target subsidies granted to Musk’s several companies.
