President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is the centerpiece of his legislative agenda, and the stakes are high.
The bill has four major pillars: renewing his 2017 tax cuts, implementing new tax cuts, spending billions on a border wall, US Customs and Border Protection, and the military, and increasing the debt ceiling. The bill itself is a smorgasbord of policy and could also affect clean energy programs, student loans, and food assistance, but perhaps the most consequential changes will be to Medicaid.
The bill was approved by the House in May and passed a key Senate vote on Saturday. Republicans are divided over competing priorities; some want to extend Trump’s tax cuts and boost immigration and defense spending, while others worry about the $2.6 trillion cost and cuts to Medicaid. Republican lawmakers aim to pass the bill by Friday using budget reconciliation, but it’s unclear if all 53 Republican senators will agree.
This is a developing story. Follow along here for the latest news, explainers, and analysis.
Trump is about to notch his biggest legislative win — but it could come at a cost
President Donald Trump has achieved his biggest legislative victory yet: his “one big, beautiful bill” — the massive tax– and Medicaid-cutting, immigration and border spending bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday — has now been passed by the House of Representatives. It goes to his desk today to be signed into law.
It’s a massive piece of legislation, likely to increase the national debt by at least $3 trillion, mostly through tax cuts, and leave 17 million Americans without health coverage — and it’s really unpopular. Majorities in nearly every reputable poll taken this month disapprove of the bill, ranging from 42 percent who oppose the bill in an Ipsos poll (compared to 23 percent who support) to 64 percent who oppose it in a KFF poll.
Republicans now own America’s broken health care system
Trump’s plan to replace clean energy with fossil fuels has some major problems
The One Big Beautiful Bill is one big disaster for AI
To hear many smart AI observers tell it, the day of Wednesday, June 25, 2025, represented the moment when Congress started to take the possibility of advanced AI seriously.
The occasion was a hearing of Congress’s “we’re worried about China” committee (or, more formally, the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party) focused on the US-China AI competition. Members of both parties used the event to express concern that was surprisingly strident and detailed about the near-term risks posed by artificial general intelligence (AGI) or even artificial superintelligence (ASI).
The Republican tax bill, explained in 500 words
Republicans are barreling ahead to try to pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — legislation that somehow manages to combine massive fiscal irresponsibility with devastating spending cuts.
The bill would keep the “Trump tax cuts” originally passed in 2017 in place, while adding some new tax breaks and new spending on immigration enforcement and the military.
The Republican spending bill is a disaster for reproductive rights
Three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans in Congress are poised to further erode access to abortion and reproductive care.
President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” would not only directly threaten reproductive care by defunding Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, it would also incentivize insurers for Affordable Care Act plans in some states to drop abortion coverage or make it significantly more expensive.
The most surprising victim of Trump’s terrible tax agenda
The Republican Party’s saving grace is supposed to be its commitment to economic growth and consumer abundance.
Sure, the GOP may see unemployed cancer patients as shiftless mooches — and the Lorax as literature’s greatest villain — but for precisely those reasons, Republicans are allegedly able stewards of industrial development: Unconstrained by concerns about inequality, the environment, or social justice, the GOP will unleash the private sector’s productive potential. Republicans won’t balance Americans’ hunger for cheap gasoline against their enlightened interest in cleaner air or a cooler planet — they’ll get you the cheap fuel now. And they won’t weigh America’s stake in technological supremacy against the risks of unregulated innovation — they’ll give cutting-edge companies whatever they need to achieve global dominance.
The devastating impact of Trump’s big, beautiful bill, in one chart
Paige Vickers/Vox; Getty Images
While public attention has largely been focused on the Middle East and on President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, Republicans in Congress are on the verge of passing massive Medicaid cuts as part of a budget bill that could lead to millions of Americans losing their health insurance benefits and, according to one recent estimate, thousands of unnecessary deaths every year.
While the GOP’s so-called “big, beautiful” bill is a smorgasbord of policy — potentially including everything from blocking AI regulation to restricting the power of the federal courts — perhaps the most consequential changes would be to Medicaid. The program, which covers low-income Americans of all ages, is now the country’s single largest insurer, covering more than 70 million people. The legislation approved by House Republicans, which is now being debated and amended by the Senate, would cut Medicaid spending by $793 billion over 10 years. The upshot is that 10.3 million fewer people would be enrolled in the program by 2034.
The economic theory behind Trumpism
For more than half a century, the American right has preached the virtues of free markets and low taxes and deregulation. But a new wave of conservative thinkers are now arguing that Republicans have been wrong — or at the very least misguided — about the economy.
This new economic thinking represents a break from what we’ve come to expect from the American right. Its proponents argue for a new strain of economic populism, one that departs from the GOP’s past allegiance to big business and focuses instead on the working class.
Trump’s big, beautiful bill, explained in 5 charts
The fight over President Donald Trump’s so-called big, beautiful bill is turning ugly.
After passing the GOP-controlled House, the bill has moved to the Senate, where Republicans are facing a bitter divide over how to balance their competing priorities.
The big, beautiful bill is bad news for student loans
Editor’s note, July 3, 4:10 pm ET: The following post was originally published on June 9. On July 3, the House passed an amended version of the Big Beautiful Bill that included some changes from the version described below.
If the “big, beautiful bill,” President Donald Trump’s signature legislative priority, eventually becomes law, it would gut some social programs that many people rely on. As my colleague Dylan Scott wrote in a thorough explainer, the package, which House Republicans passed last month, could result in millions of people losing their health care because of proposed work requirements on Medicaid.
The big, bad bond market could derail Trump’s big, beautiful bill
To pass a law in the United States, you need to jump through a lot of hurdles.
A bill has to first clear a committee in the House or Senate. (In the case of Republicans’ tax legislation this year, its components had to clear 11 different committees.) The House Rules Committee has to agree for it to come to the floor for a vote. It has to pass that vote. In the Senate, it has to get 60 votes to beat a potential filibuster, or else obey a set of byzantine rules allowing it to pass with a simple majority.
Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” briefly explained
This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump is one step closer to getting his “big, beautiful bill” after it passed the House in a close vote early this morning.
The ugly truth about Trump’s big, beautiful bill
Editor’s note, May 22, 8:30 am ET: The House passed a version of Trump’s bill early Thursday morning. It now goes to the Senate, where Republicans say they want more changes to the bill. This story was originally published on Monday.
President Donald Trump’s second term has so far been dominated by his aggressive use of executive power — but now, he’s finally trying to get something through Congress.
Trump wants “one big, beautiful bill.” Can he get it?
Vox Staff
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