WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump signed into law a massive package of tax and spending cuts at the White House on Friday, staging an outdoor ceremony on the Fourth of July holiday that took on the air of a Trump political rally.
With military jets flying overhead and hundreds of supporters in attendance, Trump signed the bill one day after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the signature legislation of the president’s second term.
The bill, which will fund Trump’s immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent, and is expected to knock millions of Americans off health insurance, was passed with a 218-214 vote after an emotional debate on the House floor.
“I’ve never seen people so happy in our country because of that, because so many different groups of people are being taken care of: the military, civilians of all types, jobs of all types,” Trump said at the ceremony, thanking House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune for leading the bill through the two houses of Congress.
“So you have the biggest tax cut, the biggest spending cut, the largest border security investment in American history,” Trump said.
Trump scheduled the ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House for the July 4 Independence Day holiday, replete with a flyover by stealth bombers and fighter jets like those that took part in the recent U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran. Hundreds of Trump supporters attended, including White House aides, members of Congress, and military families.
After a speech that included boastful claims about the ascendance of America on his watch, Trump signed the bill, posed for pictures with Republican congressional leaders and members of his cabinet, and waded through the crowd of happy supporters.
The bill’s passage amounts to a big win for Trump and his Republican allies, who have argued it will boost economic growth, while largely dismissing a nonpartisan analysis predicting it will add more than $3 trillion to the nation’s $36.2 trillion debt.
While some lawmakers in Trump’s party expressed concerns over the bill’s price tag and its hit to healthcare programs, in the end just two of the House’s 220 Republicans voted against it, joining all 212 Democrats in opposition.
The tense standoff over the bill included a record-long floor speech by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who spoke for eight hours and 46 minutes, blasting the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would strip low-income Americans of federally-backed health insurance and food aid benefits.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin predicted the law would cost Republicans votes in congressional elections in 2026.
“Today, Donald Trump sealed the fate of the Republican Party, cementing them as the party for billionaires and special interests – not working families,” Martin said in a statement. “This legislation will hang around the necks of the GOP for years to come. This was a full betrayal of the American people. Today, we are putting Republicans on notice: you will lose your majority.”
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Timothy Gardner in Washington and Andrea Shalal in Bridgewater, New Jersey; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Nathan Layne; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Rosalba O’Brien)
Comments