Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill clears hurdle
Senate Republicans narrowly cleared a key procedural step as they race to advance President Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks, welfare spending cuts and beefed-up deportation funds by his July Fourth deadline.
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US Senate Republicans narrowly cleared a key procedural step as they race to advance President Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks, welfare spending cuts and beefed-up deportation funds by his July Fourth (Independence Day) deadline.
The tally, 51-49, came after a tumultuous night with Vice President JD Vance at the Capitol to break a potential tie in the debate.
Voting came to a standstill, dragging for more than three hours as holdout senators huddled for negotiations, and met privately.
Two Republicans crossed the floor to join Democrats in trying to shot down the bill which would strip health care from millions of the poorest Americans and add more than US$3 trillion to the country’s debt.
Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push aside Democratic opposition and get the bill approved but not all of them are on board with slashing Medicaid, food stamps and other welfare programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending US$3.8 trillion in Trump tax breaks.
Mr Trump has spent time on social media lashing out against holdouts, threatening to campaign against one Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who had announced he could not support the bill because of grave Medicaid cuts that he worried would leave many without health care in his state.
Both Mr Tillis and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted ”nay” to the bill.
On Sunday, Mr Tillis announced he would not be seeking re-election.
“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Mr Tillis said in a statement.
Billionaire businessman and former Trump adviser Elon Musk called the bill “utterly insane and destructive” and “political suicide.”
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” the former DOGE chief wrote on X ahead of the Senate debate.
“Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
Musk had more criticisms in further X posts.
“Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican Party,” he wrote. “America in the fast lane to debt slavery!”
“Tonight we saw a GREAT VICTORY in the Senate,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after the vote to begin debate.
“Republicans must remember that they are fighting against a very evil, corrupt and, in many ways, incompetent (Policywise!) group of people, who would rather see our Country ‘go down in flames’ than do the right thing,” he said in an earlier post.
‘COMMUNIST’: TRUMP BLASTS NYC MAYORAL FRONTRUNNER
Donald Trump has branded the winner of New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary a “pure communist” in new remarks.
Zohran Mamdani’s shock win last week against scandal-scarred political heavyweight Andrew Cuomo resonated as a thunderclap within the party, and drew the ire of Mr Trump and his collaborators, who accused Mamdani of being a radical extremist.
The president’s aggressive criticism of the self-described democratic socialist is sure to ramp up over the coming months.
“He’s pure communist” and a “radical leftist... lunatic,” Mr Trump fumed on Fox News talk show “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”
“I think it’s very bad for New York,” added Mr Trump, who grew up in the city and built his sprawling real estate business there.
“If he does get in, I’m going to be president and he is going to have to do the right thing (or) they’re not getting any money” from the federal government.
Mr Trump’s White House has repeatedly threatened to curb funding for Democratic-led US cities if they oppose his policies, including cutting off money to so-called sanctuary cities which limit their cooperation with immigration authorities.
TRUMP ‘NOT GOING TO STAND’ FOR ISRAELI PM CORRUPTION CHARGES
President Donald Trump said the United States was “not going to stand” for the continued prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges.
“The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
An Israeli court has rejected Mr Netanyahu’s request to postpone giving testimony in his corruption trial, ruling that he had not provided adequate justification for his request.
In one case, Mr Netanyahu and his wife Sara are accused of accepting more than US$260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewelry and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favors.
Mr Netanyahu is also accused of attempting to negotiate favorable coverage from Israeli media outlets.
Mr Trump described Mr Netanyahu as a “War Hero” and said the case would distract the prime minister from negotiations with Iran and with Hamas, the Gaza-based Palestinian armed group that Israel is at war with.
The US leader also likened Mr Netanyahu’s legal troubles to his own before he took office for his second term.
“It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure,” said Mr Trump.
‘GOING AT IT WITH MACHETES’: TRUMP TOUTS RWANDA-CONGO TRUCE
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a peace agreement Washington to end fighting that has killed thousands, with the two countries pledging to pull back support for guerillas - and President Donald Trump boasting of securing mineral wealth.
“Today, the violence and destruction comes to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity,” Mr Trump said as he welcomed the two nations’ foreign ministers to the White House. “This is a wonderful day.”
The agreement comes after the M23, an ethnic Tutsi rebel force linked to Rwanda, sprinted across the mineral-rich east of the DRC this year, seizing vast territory including the key city of Goma.
The deal - negotiated through Qatar since before Mr Trump took office - does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 in the area torn by decades of on-off war but calls for Rwanda to end “defensive measures” it has taken.
The agreement calls for the “neutralisation” of the FDLR, with Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe saying the “irreversible and verifiable end to state support” to the Hutu militants should be the “first order of business.”
The process would be “accompanied by a lifting of Rwanda’s defensive measures,” Nduhungirehe said at a signing ceremony at the State Department.
His Congolese counterpart, Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said, “It offers a rare chance to turn the page, not just with words but with real change on the ground. Some wounds will heal, but they will never fully disappear,” she said.
Mr Trump said the United States would be able to secure “a lot of mineral rights from the Congo.”
The DRC has enormous mineral reserves that include lithium and cobalt, vital in electric vehicles and other advanced technologies, with US rival China now a key player in securing the resources.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the deal “a significant step towards de-escalation, peace and stability” in the eastern DRC and the Great Lakes region.
Chairman of the African Union Commission Mahmoud Ali Youssouf “welcomed this significant milestone and commended all efforts aimed at advancing peace, stability, and reconciliation in the region,” a statement said.
TRUMP ABRUPTLY ENDS TRADE TALKS
President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced that he was “terminating” trade talks with Canada due to a looming digital services tax targeting large American companies.
“We have just been informed that Canada … has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social early Saturday AEST.
“They are obviously copying the European Union, which has done the same thing, and is currently under discussion with us, also. Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately.”
Mr Trump added: “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Canada is moving forward with plans to slap a three per cent tax on revenue generated by platforms like Facebook and Google — with looming tax bills made retroactive to 2022 and applicable to firms that rake in more than A$22 million per year.
SUPREME COURT RULING BOOSTS TRUMP’S AGENDAS
President Trump hailed a “giant win” after the Supreme Court curbed lone judges from blocking the Republican’s raft of controversial policies.
The 6-3 ruling stemmed from Mr Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship.
The court said individual district judges had likely exceeded their powers by issuing nationwide injunctions, which have also blocked a string of Mr Trump’s hard line policies on immigration, diversity and firing federal employees.
“The Supreme Court has delivered a monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers and the rule of law,” 79-year-old Mr Trump told a press conference at the White House.
Mr Trump said he would now proceed with “so many policies” that had been “wrongly” blocked, including stopping funding for transgender people and “sanctuary cities” for migrants.
His initial reaction to the ruling came in a post on Truth Social, welcomed it as a “GIANT WIN.”
Originally published as Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill clears hurdle
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