Senate votes on amendments to Trump’s big bill ahead of July 4 deadline

The Capitol was abuzz at dinnertime as senators continued proceedings on Republicans’ sweeping tax and spending bill.

Card games were played in the reception room, cigars were smoked on the balcony, and many boxes of pizza were carried through the halls of Congress. Many energy drink cans and iced coffees were in hand by all present. Groans about the process, which is likely to extend well into the morning, could be heard from staffers and senators alike.

Some Democrats, who are lobbing one protest amendment after another at the bill, took breaks in hideaways throughout the Capitol to vent with each other and rest.

GOP senators took breaks from the Senate floor as well. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama, smoked a cigar on the Capitol terrace at sunset. Other GOP senators took calls and chatted in rooms near the Senate chamber.
___
This blog post has been updated to correct the spelling of Tuberville’s name.

Nearly 12 hours after voting began, the Senate floor remained largely idle Monday evening. Senators have been voting on amendments, but none have passed. While senators have mingled on the floor, most negotiations have taken place behind closed doors.

Republicans have repeatedly expressed hope for a final vote around midnight, but that timeline was in jeopardy late into the evening. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there was still a chance to wrap things up before day’s end but added they were still “trying to construct a list” of what each senator wants.

The tech billionaire has said that he’s getting out of politics, but his X posts tell a different story.

On Monday, the tech billionaire and former DOGE chief lashed out multiple times at Republicans for backing Trump’s tax cuts bill, calling the GOP “the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” for including a provision that would raise the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion and calling the bill “political suicide” for Republicans.

After a post pledging to work toward primarying members of Congress who backed the bill, Musk responded “I will” to a post in which former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash asked for Musk’s support of Thomas Massie.

Trump aides are already honed in on the Kentucky Republican for voting against the measure, launching a new super PAC devoted to defeating him.

Musk spent at least $250 million supporting Trump in the presidential campaign, as the main contributor to America PAC. In May, he said he would likely spend “a lot less” on politics in the future.

The president ordered his top cabinet officers to examine current sanctions on Cuba and come up with ways to tighten them within 30 days.

In a memorandum sent to the State, Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Agriculture departments and virtually every other federal agency on Monday, Trump said the reviews should focus on Cuba’s treatment of dissidents, its policies directed at dissidents and how it allows money from the U.S. to be sent into the country through remittances from Cuban Americans living in the U.S.

In one potential significant change, the order said the U.S. should look for ways to shut down all tourism to the island and also to restrict educational tours to groups that are organized and run only by American citizens.

The move is not a surprise given that Trump has previously said he plans to rescind the easing of sanctions and other penalties in Cuba that were instituted during President Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s terms in office.

Even as Elon Musk attacked them on social media, Republican senators tried to remain diplomatic and avoid hitting back at the former top Trump adviser.

“At the end of the day, you know, we should be thankful for the work that he did,” GOP Sen. Jim Justice said. “But I’m sure Elon’s got a real ego, and sometimes egos can really clash.”

Musk on social media said Republicans who vote for the current form of Trump’s big bill “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.” Among those up for reelection is Sen. Joni Ernst, who is also chair of the Senate DOGE caucus.

“I really appreciate what Elon has done with our DOGE work, and we’re going to keep working on that with various rescissions packages,” Ernst told reporters. “But at the end of the day what we also don’t want is a $4.3 trillion tax increase on American taxpayers.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, the two-term senator who announced his retirement Sunday after clashing with Trump over his tax breaks and spending cuts bill, said he would likely get involved in the GOP primary for his replacement.

“I’ve run successful two statewide races, and I got a pretty good idea of the profile you need to win,” Tillis told the Associated Press.

Ideally, Tillis said, Senate Republicans and the White House would land on a GOP candidate who could navigate both a primary and the general election in North Carolina. The swing state will likely be home to the most competitive Senate race in next year’s midterm elections.

One candidate Tillis does not want as the nominee: Mark Robinson, the former lieutenant governor who ran for the state’s top job last year.

“He would probably lose by a larger margin than he did the last time,” Tillis said, speculating that Trump would likely not endorse Robinson again.

Police say 38 people protesting the Republican tax and spending cut bill being considered in the Senate have been arrested so far Monday at the U.S. Capitol.

The arrests took place at two sites, inside the Capitol Rotunda and at an intersection near the Capitol, U.S. Capitol Police said. Those arrested were charged with crowding, obstructing and incommoding.

A group called Repairers of the Breach said in a statement that their members led the effort. They said the demonstration continues a tradition of nonviolent actions at the Capitol confronting unjust policies and calling the nation to higher ground.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg used Facebook to implore voters to step up to Trump’s bill of tax breaks and spending cuts while there is still time.

“If there was ever a time to call your Senator, this is it. Voting has begun on the GOP plan to cut off health care for working-class Americans and slash taxes for the wealthiest,” he said. “This bill would kick millions off their health insurance, and thousands will even lose their lives - unless we stop it in its tracks. Some Republicans are breaking ranks, showing it’s not too late. Time to speak up!”

As the Senate prepared to vote on the major bill Monday, Democrats introduced an amendment to ban the president and his family from directly or indirectly issuing or profiting from cryptocurrencies.

“No elected official should be able to run a crypto scheme to sell influence and enrich themselves,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said.

Republicans rejected the measure along party lines. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a key GOP crypto supporter, said it would have stifled innovation.

The issue has divided the chamber all year, as cryptocurrency legislation has advanced without confronting potential financial gains for Trump and his family.

Lawyers for the Trump administration and immigrants are sparring in court over whether the president can use an 18th century wartime act against the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.

The case before the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times before in U.S. history, during the War of 1812 and the two world wars. Trump invoked it in March against Tren de Aragua, which he claims is acting as an arm of the Venezuelan government.

The ACLU and other groups sued, saying that was improper.

▶ Read more about the tangled legal battle

Multibillionaire Elon Musk is again denouncing Republicans’ sweeping tax and spending package as senators negotiate ahead of a final pivotal vote on the bill.

“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” Musk wrote on the social platform X.

A section of the GOP bill would indeed raise the debt ceiling, though the provision largely approves the federal government to pay debts that have already been incurred. If the debt ceiling were not raised, the U.S. would default on its debts, meaning that the government would not pay back those who had loaned the nation money or not pay for services and goods already purchased by the government.

The top military commander in charge of troops deployed to Los Angeles to respond to protests against immigration raids has asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if 200 of those forces could be returned to wildfire fighting duty, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Monday.

Trump ordered the deployment of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 800 active-duty Marines against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom in early June.

California has entered peak wildfire season, and Newsom has warned that the Guard is now understaffed.

The top military commander of those troops, U.S. Northern Command head Gen. Gregory Guillot, recently submitted a request to Hegseth to return 200 of the National Guard troops back to the California National Guard’s wildfire unit, the officials said.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet announced publicly.

▶ Read more about the request

In a pair of posts on Truth Social, Trump said he was trying to hold a conference call with faith leaders from all over the country, but he was unable to start the call because of technical difficulties, which he blamed on AT&T.

“If the Boss of AT&T, whoever that may be, could get involved — It would be good,” he wrote. “There are tens of thousands of people on the line!” In another post, he said: “AT&T ought to get its act together.”

Representatives for AT&T responded — also on social media — replying to a post from the White House press secretary on X sharing Trump’s complaints:
“We’ve reached out to the White House and are working to quickly understand and assess the situation,” AT&T said.

The issue was resolved and the call started 20 minutes late, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The State Department said the sale approved Monday includes more than 7,000 bomb guidance kits for two different types of Joint Direct Attack Munitions.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the department said in a statement. “This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives.”

Trump spoke to thousands of faith leaders in a conference call Monday, the first in a series of regular calls that the White House expects him to periodically hold with religious leaders.

Trump, who created a White House faith office this year, spoke to between 8,000 and 10,000 leaders of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths on the call, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

During the call, according to the official, Trump spoke for about 15 minutes and touted provisions in his big tax breaks and spending cuts bill like the boost to the child tax credit, the Israel-Iran ceasefire and African peace deals he brokered, and the pardons he issued for anti-abortion activists.

Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House next Monday, according to a U.S. administration official.

The visit comes as the U.S. leader has begun stepping up his push on the Israeli government to broker a ceasefire and hostage agreement and bring about an end to the war in Gaza.

The official was not authorized to comment publicly on the visit that hasn’t been formally announced and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

▶ Read more about the planned visit

Kilmar Abrego Garcia will stay in jail for now over concerns that he could be deported if he’s released to await his trial on human smuggling charges, a federal judge in Tennessee ruled Monday.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys had asked the judge to delay his release because of what they described as “contradictory statements” by President Donald Trump’s administration over what would happen to the Salvadoran national. The lawyers wrote in a brief to the court that “we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue” by the Justice Department, adding that the “irony of this request is not lost on anyone.”

Abrego Garcia, a construction worker who had been living in Maryland, became a flashpoint over Trump’s hardline immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, Trump’s Republican administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called “preposterous.”

▶ Read more about Abrego Garcia

Despite assertions from press secretary Karoline Leavitt that the president met Monday at the White House with the top two congressional leaders, that wasn’t the case.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the South Dakota Republican was not at the White House on Monday and had no plans to go there later that day. Johnson was not at the White House either.

Thune is overseeing the so-called “vote-a-rama” session in the Senate ahead of a final vote on Trump’s tax-and-border bill.

“Teams are obviously in close contact/coordination, as always,” the spokesman, Ryan Wrasse, said on X, “but we’re continuing to move through vote-a-rama in the Senate as we work to move this bill one step closer to the president’s desk.”

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House that Trump “is going to finalize the frameworks we negotiated with a whole bunch of countries after the weekend.”

That followed Trump posting on his social media site that Japan wasn’t buying enough rice from the U.S. “They won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,” the president wrote, before adding “we’ll just be sending them a letter.”

Trump has suggested that the U.S. will be sending letters to many countries, informing them of the new tariff rates they will face from the U.S. after a July 9 deadline when the president’s 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs expires.

Hassett said of tariff negotiations with Japan that there will “still be discussions right up to the end.”

A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has not ended the threat of cyberattacks from hacking groups supportive of Tehran, the FBI and federal cybersecurity officials said Monday.

In a public bulletin, the authorities warned that hacking groups affiliated or supportive of Tehran may still seek to disrupt or disable important infrastructure, such as utilities, transportation centers and economic hubs. Hackers may also target defense contractors or other American companies with ties to Israel, the agencies warned.

The warning outlined recommendations including the use of regular software updates and strong password management systems to shore up digital defenses.

Hackers backing Tehran have targeted U.S. banks, defense contractors and energy companies following American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — but so far have not caused widespread disruptions.

Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush have delivered rare open remarks questioning the Trump administration’s gutting of the main U.S. aid agency, including funding cuts to a popular AIDS and HIV program.

Obama called President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development “inexplicable” and “a colossal mistake.”

Bush addressed Trump cuts and rule changes to PEPFAR, an AIDS and HIV prevention and care program credited with saving 25 million lives around the world.

“Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is,” Bush said.

The Democratic and Republican former presidents spoke in video remarks to USAID staffers. While the videoconference was closed to press, some of the videos were shared with The Associated Press.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department Tuesday, meaning all but a fraction of remaining USAID staffers will lose their jobs.

Obama addressed the thousands in the USAID community listening online.
“Your work has mattered, and will matter for generations to come,” he told them.

Leavitt says Trump will sign an executive order ending U.S. economic sanctions on Syria and promoting a “path to prosperity and peace.”

The U.S. granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions in May. The press secretary said it was “an action that the president promised.”

Leavitt said Trump wants Syria to be “stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbors.”

Trump is set to sign the executive order on Monday afternoon.

Leavitt was asked about the push from some Republicans to have the Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani “denaturalized,” lose his U.S. citizenship and deported, but the press secretary said she had not heard Trump call for that.

“Certainly, he does not want this individual elected,” Leavitt said.

She said Trump is “always willing to work with everyone,” but said that she thinks that “the president would find it difficult to work with someone like that if he is elected.”

Following President Donald Trump’s lead, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a Trump appointee who has held off on benchmark rate cuts until the U.S. central bank can gauge the impact of Trump’s tariffs.

“I would remind the Fed chair, and I would remind the entire world, that this is a president who was a businessman first, and he knows what he is doing,” said Leavitt.

The White House spokeswoman opened Monday’s briefing by reading a note from Trump to Powell.

“Jerome, you are, as usual, too late,” Leavitt said, reading the correspondence from the president. “You have cost the USA a fortune and continue to do so. You should lower the rate by a lot. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost and there is no inflation.”

The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures price index, is tracking at 2.3% annually, slightly higher than the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed sees political independence as a key value for the integrity of the monetary policies it sets with the goals of stabilizing prices and maximizing employment.

Leavitt demurred when asked why Trump had not simply fired Powell, a move that could rattle financial markets. She said the question could be asked to Trump directly. Trump has said he could fire Powell if he wanted, but a recent Supreme Court ruling indicated that the Fed chair has a unique status.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says of the Trump-backed tax cut and spending bill seemingly on the verge of clearing Congress, “Republicans need to stay tough and unified during the home stretch, and we are counting on them to get the job done.”

Leavitt told reporters during her briefing that Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson were at the White House on Monday to discuss passing what Trump calls the “big, beautiful bill.”

Leavitt also said Trump was confident the bill would be passed and at the White House to be signed by July 4, an informal deadline the president has been pushing for weeks.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a news briefing Monday that Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, and Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds will join Trump and DeSantis Tuesday to view the detention facility in the Florida Everglades.

Leavitt said the new facility has only one road in and the only way out for those detained there is on a flight.

“It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain,” Leavitt said.

In the runup to a final Senate vote on Trump’s big bill of tax cuts and spending cuts, Republicans have voted down Democratic amendments to strike portions of the bill that would reduce funding for rural hospitals, food stamps and Medicaid.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined Democrats on an amendment to strike language that would force rural hospitals to limit their services. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Democrats on that vote and a separate Democratic motion to prevent the legislation from shifting some food stamp costs to states.

On a party line vote, Republicans also dismissed a motion by Democrats to strike any provision that would cut Medicaid.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said President Donald Trump is planning to visit on Tuesday a site in the Everglades where Florida officials want to detain migrants, which they have named “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The Florida Republican said the site “will be ready for business” by Tuesday.

“What’ll happen is you bring people in there. They ain’t going anywhere once they’re there, unless you want them to go somewhere, because good luck getting to civilization. So the security is amazing,” DeSantis said, hinting at the alligators that swim in the wetlands surrounding the abandoned airport site and prompting some laughs from the audience at an unrelated press conference.

DeSantis said he spoke with Trump over the weekend, and announced the site obtained approval from the Department of Homeland Security last week.

Senators and the White House are in communication as the GOP spending bill enters its final phase.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said some senators had “kind of” set up siloed chats to coordinate their message with the White House.

Cramer said he thought conservative final pitches from Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rick Scott of Florida would not hold up the bill.

But he added that the bill would likely lose at least three of his colleagues and that Vice President JD Vance will likely need to cast a tie-breaking vote.

It wasn’t hard to spot on the Senate floor one of the most watched lawmakers on Monday.

Sen. Susan Collins stood out in a vibrant hot pink pantsuit as she moved from conversation to conversation, talking with fellow swing vote Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Majority Leader John Thune.

Republicans are hoping both Collins and Murkowski join them in supporting the tax and spending bill – but each has swayed in their support for weeks.

Meanwhile, another Republican, Sen. Eric Schmitt, donned a bold red tie, telling reporters it was his “game day tie.”

Monday’s Senate session, expected to be sharply partisan, opened when Idaho’s Republican senators addressed a shooting in the state that left two firefighters dead.

Democratic senators from the neighboring state of Washington rose in support of their colleagues.

“I too just want to stand and join in our colleagues from Idaho with our deep sorrow for everyone in those impacted communities,” said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.

Harvard University failed to protect Jewish students from harassment, the Trump administration concluded after an investigation, threatening to cut all federal funding from the Ivy League school if it fails to take action.

In a letter to Harvard on Monday, a federal task force says the university violated civil rights laws requiring colleges to protect students from discrimination based on race or national origin.

It says investigators found Harvard was at times a “willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff” and that campus leaders allowed antisemitism to fester on the campus.

▶ Read more about the administration’s threatened cuts to Harvard

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has remained noncommittal on when Trump’s tax and spending bill might pass, suggesting final votes could slip into tomorrow.

“We’ll see,” Thune told reporters as he darted from the Senate floor to his office. He added that it depends on how long Democrats choose to “drag it out.”

Asked if he’s confident that Republicans have the votes, Thune replied: “Never until we vote.”

Some Senate Republicans are striking a more upbeat tone about the proceedings after a weekend of intense and divisive debates over the tax and spending bill.

“Yesterday was the tough day,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican.

Marshall said that he’d sent out a letter to the GOP caucus on “how to prepare” for an all-nighter before Republicans changed course and decided to conduct the bill’s grueling floor debate during the day Monday.

“This is an easy day to me. We’re only going to be here, what, twelve to fourteen hours?” Marshall said.

“I guess my one tip is to stay hydrated and to do not over caffeinate in the morning. Save the sugar and caffeine for when you need it the most,” Marshall said.

The Supreme Court will take up a Republican-led drive to wipe away limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president.

The justices said Monday they’ll review an appellate ruling that upheld a provision of federal election law that’s more than 50 years old. Democrats wanted the court to leave the law in place.

The case will be argued in the fall.

It’s a challenge to the Republicans’ budgeting method for the big bill that Democrats decry as “magic math” and are trying to strike from the process.

GOP senators have argued that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are considered “current policy” and extending them indefinitely shouldn’t be counted in the total cost of the package.

Democrats argue that the Trump tax breaks, which are set to expire if Congress fails to act this year, are piling onto the national deficit.

Sen. John Thune says “it’s time to vote” on the massive tax and spending cuts package that has been moving through the Senate and that Trump wants on his desk by July 4.

Thune pushed back on Democratic arguments that it would hurt working people, noting that Congress passed new work requirements for welfare recipients under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

The GOP bill includes new work requirements for Medicaid and Food stamp recipients, among other cuts to those programs.

The Senate is beginning an all-day session of amendment votes ahead of an expected final vote on Trump’s big bill of spending cuts and tax cuts.

The session could last into the night.

Democrats are expected to offer amendments to strike tax breaks for the wealthy and and cuts to the Medicaid program, among many others.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in opening remarks that he will start with an amendment that would block any provisions that increase costs for working families or small businesses “to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”

• What’s in the latest version of Trump’s big bill now before the Senate
• Republican Senate tax bill would add $3.3 trillion to the US debt load, CBO says
• Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina won’t run in 2026 after opposing Trump’s bill
• Centrist Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska won’t seek reelection
• What’s next for birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court’s ruling
• Senate rejects effort to restrain Trump on Iran as the Republican party backs his strikes on nuclear sites
• Democrats wrestle with how to conduct oversight as Trump officials crack down
• The government cuts key data used in hurricane forecasting, and experts sound an alarm

Trump is expected to sign executive orders at 2:30 p.m. ET. Although it’s listed as a private event, sometimes the media is allowed. In addition, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is scheduled to give a briefing at 1 p.m. ET.