Trump Signs ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ His Sweeping Policy Legislation

The Washington Post

13:25 JST, July 6, 2025

President Donald Trump on Friday, with the nation at cookouts and preparing for sparkler-filled evenings, flooded the South Lawn of the White House with a mixture of patriotic festival and a celebration of his biggest legislative accomplishment.

The president who has signed a historic number of executive orders finally got his dream of signing a signature policy bill that contains a collection of his campaign promises.

And then, expected by dusk, the fireworks.

It was the culmination of a string of successes in recent weeks and a remarkable display of how Trump has been able to bend to his will both allies and adversaries, world leaders and university presidents, media executives and judges.

Even after moments when the legislation’s passage seemed uncertain, with Republican lawmakers balking at its cost and cuts to safety net programs, Trump secured the narrow margins needed through the power of persuasion and more than a little intimidation.

“I think I have more power now, I do,” he said on Thursday, when asked about the difference between his first and second terms. “More gravitas. More power.”

The legislation, which he held aloft after signing it before 6 p.m., is the latest signal that other branches of government are ceding more influence to the executive branch.

Last week, the Supreme Court sharply limited the ability of federal judges to block a presidential action nationwide, even if they find it unconstitutional. The Senate several days ago rejected a resolution that would let Congress decide whether Trump can attack Iran again. And the White House is expected to make a flurry of tariff announcements in the next week, as the legislative branch declines to assert its constitutional authority on levies.

Trump on Friday also welcomed the B-2 bomber pilots who dropped 14 bunker-busting bombs on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, in an operation that Trump has said “obliterated” the country’s nuclear program. Some of those same planes flew over the White House on Friday just before he signed the bill, alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and dozens of lawmakers. Johnson gave him a gavel that he banged to mark the signing, before handing out pens to those around him.

“This whole two weeks has been incredible, hasn’t it? You know, when you think of all of the victories,” Trump marveled Thursday night before a large crowd in Iowa.

Twenty minutes later, he still couldn’t believe it.

“This had to be the best two weeks,” he said. “Has anybody ever had a better two weeks?”

On Friday evening, the White House lawn was filled with people for what has been a traditional July Fourth picnic. Celebratory music played, and many of his Cabinet members were gathered.

“I want to wish you a very happy Independence Day,” he said, with first lady Melania Trump standing by his side. “This is going to be something special. … The spirit in this country we haven’t seen anything like it in many, many years – in decades!”

He highlighted many of the congressional members in the crowd, several times singling out Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), whose vote was crucial to advancing the bill after she won a number of concessions for her home state.

“Lisa, thank you very much,” Trump said. “I have to thank you.”

He also spoke about past grievances, including news coverage, Democratic criticisms of the legislation, and investigations into whether Russia played a role in past elections.

Reflecting on the past several weeks, he said, “There has never been anything like it as far as winning, winning, winning.” He said the election results gave him a sweeping mandate, claiming that the legislation was the result.

“The people are happy,” he said. “They’re happy.”

There are significant risks ahead, however, with a bill that is expected to add trillions of dollars to the national debt and could knock millions of Americans off Medicaid. The bill also massively infuses funding into immigration enforcement agencies, even as public approval of Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda tumbles.

Early polling indicates that most Americans don’t yet know much about the mammoth bill, which will pit Trump’s salesmanship against Democrats eager for any policy argument to rally around. Some of its provisions, particularly cuts to Medicaid, are unpopular, and Democrats are already planning to make it a chief argument in the midterm elections. The extension of tax cuts that could help the wealthiest Americans, combined with cuts to safety net programs, could give them a potent case to make.

“This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (New York) said shortly after it passed the Senate. “Because of this bill, tens of millions will lose health insurance. Millions of jobs will disappear. People will get sick and die.”

Throughout the tortuous negotiations in the House and Senate, Trump largely rejected warning signs even from certain members in his own party, and has rejected some of the projections from budget analysts over some of the far-reaching implications of the bill.

Even as he has secured a signature domestic achievement, he faces other challenges abroad. The initial strikes in Iran were successful, and Trump has brushed aside any notion – including preliminary U.S. intelligence reports – that it wasn’t “total obliteration” of their nuclear program. But full inspections of the sites have not taken place, the decision to intervene in a foreign conflict deeply divided Trump’s base, and the Middle East remains volatile.

Trump is hoping to strike a ceasefire deal in Gaza next week when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes to the White House. But he has also struggled in recent days to achieve a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin,” he told reporters early Friday. “I’m very disappointed. … I don’t think he’s looking to stop. It’s too bad.”

Trump on Friday morning spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a conversation that Zelensky said focused in part on Russian airstrikes and possibilities for air defense assistance. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the phone call. Trump earlier in the week halted some weapons shipments to the war-torn country as it faces new aerial attacks and a surging Russian offensive.

But there are few achievements in recent weeks that compare to his ability to muscle through legislation that cemented many of his top priorities. Trump to date has largely governed through executive orders, which could be unwound by future presidents. Since January, he has signed 168 orders, according to The American Presidency Project. Biden, over his four years in office, signed 162.

Republicans are in control of both chambers of Congress, giving him a window of partisan power to attempt to pass his priorities. But with extremely narrow margins, and warring factions within the Republican Party, there so far had not been any major legislative movement. Trump decided to package everything into one piece of legislation, which he branded his One Big Beautiful Bill.

White House officials described him as “the omnipresent force behind this legislation” and couched the bill signing with historic sweep.

“Not too many presidents get the opportunity to have unified government,” said a senior White House official, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity after the bill’s passage. “Not too many presidents get the opportunity to enact basically the vast majority of their campaign promises in a single piece of legislation.”

Trump had set a deadline of July 4, and managed to secure it. He has staged a smattering of signings at the White House, including one for the Laken Riley Act. But until now, 165 days into his presidency, he has not had a major piece of legislation to sign.

“It’s the biggest bill ever signed of its kind,” Trump said.