COLLIER COUNTY, Florida — President Donald Trump touted his signature domestic policy legislation, dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill,” on Tuesday afternoon after the Senate narrowly passed the measure following weeks of laborious negotiations.
The bill will now head to the GOP-led House, where lawmakers will have to decide whether to stomach the changes the upper chamber made before the self-imposed July 4 deadline.
“It’s a great bill. There is something for everyone,” Trump said as he visited a migrant detention center dubbed Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades. “And I think it’s going to go very nicely in the House. Actually, I think it will be easier in the House than it was in the Senate.”
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Trump defended the bill after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 11.8 million Americans would become uninsured by 2034. Trump said cuts to Medicaid would be attributed to trimming off unnecessary spending.
“I’m saying it’s going to be a very much smaller number than that, and that number will be waste, fraud, and abuse,” he said when asked by reporters. “And if you look, they took a much more liberal stance on the Medicaid situation than they could have.”
Three GOP lawmakers, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Susan Collins (R-ME), voted against the legislation, which led to Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking 51-50 vote.
The House is scheduled to begin debating the measure Wednesday morning, but some lawmakers have already expressed uncertainty that the bill could be passed by the July 4 deadline.
Trump appeared willing to allow lawmakers to blow past the deadline during a press gaggle with reporters before he left the White House for Florida.
“I’d love to do July Fourth, but I think it’s very hard to do July Fourth,” Trump said. “I would say maybe July Fourth or somewhere around there.”
Still, Trump later urged House Republicans to unite behind the bill, and pass it before they leave for their July 4 recess.
We can have all of this right now, but only if the House GOP UNITES, ignores its occasional “GRANDSTANDERS” (You know who you are!), and does the right thing, which is sending this Bill to my desk,” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social. “We are on schedule — Let’s keep it going, and be done before you and your family go on a July 4th vacation. The American People need and deserve it. They sent us here to, GET IT DONE!”
He continued, “To my GOP friends in the House: Stay UNITED, have fun, and Vote “YAY.” GOD BLESS YOU ALL!”
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During his Florida visit, Trump also told the Washington Examiner, while hosting a roundtable at the migrant detention center, that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has his “approval” to deputize the National Guard as immigration judges to preside over immigration cases.
“He has my approval, OK,” Trump said.
