House passes Trump’s ‘big beautiful’ tax and spending bill after months of wrangling – US politics live

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Here is a little bit more detail on Trump’s tax cut bill passing in the House.

It passed in a 215-214 vote, with all of the chamber’s Democrats and two Republicans voting against it. A third Republican voted “present.”

The package must also win approval in the Republican-controlled Senate before Trump can sign it into law. The vote came after a marathon push that kept lawmakers debating the bill through two successive nights.

The 1,000-page legislation would extend corporate and individual tax cuts passed in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office, cancel many green-energy incentives passed by Democratic former president Joe Biden and tighten eligibility for health and food programs for the poor.

It also would fund Trump’s crackdown on immigration, adding tens of thousands of border guards and creating the capacity to deport up to 1 million people each year.

Reuters reports:

With a narrow 220-212 majority, House Speaker Mike Johnson could not afford to lose more than a handful of votes from his side.

Republicans on the party’s right flank had pushed for deeper spending cuts to lessen the budget impact, but they met resistance from centrists who worried they would fall too heavily on the 71 million low-income Americans enrolled in the Medicaid health program.

Johnson made changes to address conservatives’ concerns, pulling forward a new work requirements for Medicaid recipients to take effect at the end of 2026, two years earlier than before. That would kick several million people off the program, according to CBO. The bill also would penalize states that expand Medicaid in the future.

Johnson also expanded a deduction break for state and local tax payments, which was a priority for a handful of centrist Republicans who represent high-tax states like New York and California.

Democrats blasted the bill as a disproportionately benefiting the wealthy while cutting benefits for working Americans. CBO found it would reduce income for the poorest 10% of US households and boost income for the top 10%.

“This bill is a scam, a tax scam designed to steal from you, the American people, and give to Trump’s millionaire and billionaire friends,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern said.

The Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, is not expected to take the bill up until early June. Top Senate Republicans have said that chamber may make significant changes to the bill before passing it.

Trump tax cut bill passes US House in win for president

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday, in a political victory for the president after months of Republican infighting over spending cuts and tax policies.

The measure will now be scrutinised by lawmakers in the Senate. More as we get it.

Trump’s massive tax and spending bill clears hurdle to advance to House vote in coming hours

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill cleared a crucial hurdle on Thursday, as the House of Representatives voted roughly along party lines to begin a debate that would lead to a vote on passage later in the morning.

The legislation would extend his signature 2017 tax cuts, create new tax breaks for tipped income and auto loans, end many green-energy subsidies and boost spending on the military and immigration enforcement, Reuters reported. It would also tighten eligibility for food and health programs that serve millions of low-income Americans.

The proposed legislation – which Trump nicknamed “one big beautiful bill” – would also add $3.8tn to the $36.2tn US debt burden over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Lawmakers voted 217-212 to begin a floor debate on the legislation during a rare pre-dawn session that featured choruses of cheers and boos between party members. A single Republican lawmaker, fiscal hawk Thomas Massie, joined Democrats in opposition.

They were due to vote again to pass the measure later in the morning and send it on to the Republican-led Senate, which would probably take weeks to act.

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In other news:

• Donald Trump ambushed the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, by playing him a video that he falsely claimed proved genocide was being committed against white people under “the opposite of apartheid”. Ramaphosa – who earlier said that he had come to Washington to “reset” the relationship between the two countries – refused to take the bait and suggested that they “talk about it very calmly”.

• Ramaphosa expects Trump to visit South Africa during G2o meeting. His spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told South African TV station Newzroom Afrika that the Oval Office meeting was “an orchestrated show for the cameras” and that the “real business” of the trip was the bilateral closed-door meeting.

• Trump said he will make a decision in the near future about taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public, a move which he said he is giving “very serious consideration”. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he will speak with treasury secretary Scott Bessent; commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick; and federal housing finance director, William Pulte, about doing so.

• The Trump administration formally accepted the controversial gift of a Boeing 747 jetliner from the government of Qatar, and directed the air force to assess how quickly the plane can be upgraded for possible use as a new Air Force One. The offer of the jet has set off a firestorm of bipartisan criticism of Trump, particularly following the president’s visit to the country last week to arrange US business deals.

• A federal judge ruled that the Department of Homeland Security’s attempt to deport migrants to South Sudan was “unquestionably violative” of an injunction he had issued earlier. US district judge Brian E Murphy made the remark at an emergency hearing he had ordered in Boston following the Trump administration’s apparent deportation of eight people to South Sudan, despite most of them being from other countries. On Tuesday, Murphy ruled that the administration could not let a group of migrants being deported to South Sudan leave the custody of US immigration authorities.

• The justice department moved to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd, as well as a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, after the death of Breonna Taylor, saying it does not want to pursue the cases. The move shows how the civil rights division of the justice department is changing rapidly under Donald Trump, dismantling Biden-era work and investigating diversity programs. It also comes amid pressure on the right to recast Floyd’s murder, undermine diversity efforts and define liberal-run cities like Minneapolis as crime-ridden.

• The US army said it has no plans to recognize Trump’s birthday on 14 June when he presides over part of the army’s celebrations of its 250th anniversary. Trump, who is turning 79 on the same day, will play a big role in the celebrations, which will cost between $25m and $45m, will see the army hold a parade down Washington’s Constitution Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares that cuts through the capital. The parade was not part of the original planning for the 14 June celebrations and was added this year, stoking criticism from Democratic lawmakers and others that Trump has hijacked the event.