In today’s issue:
▪ Trump on cusp of ‘big, beautiful’ win
▪ President touts Vietnam trade framework
▪ Wisconsin court upholds abortion access
▪ White House plays hardball on tariffs
President Trump is on the cusp of a major legislative win today as his “big, beautiful bill” heads to a final vote in the House.
Lawmakers teed up the bill to prepare to send it to Trump’s desk this morning after dramatically surmounting an internal GOP revolt, with more than 18 hours of overnight arm twisting to clear a key procedural hurdle.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) defended his gamble to heed the president’s Friday deadline to enact what could be the most significant piece of legislation of Trump’s second term.
“We’re going to meet our July 4 deadline, which everybody made fun of me for saying,” Johnson said early today.
▪ The Hill: Trump begins the summer on a hot streak.
▪ The Hill: Follow live coverage of the House vote.
The chamber after 3 a.m. voted 219-213 to adopt a procedural rule on the sweeping measure that was in jeopardy before midnight. Five Republicans who initially cast votes in opposition dwindled to just one, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who joined Democrats in opposing the procedural motion on the Senate’s version of the mammoth tax and spending bill.
The extended vote on advancing the bill followed Republicans keeping another procedural vote open for more than seven hours, making it the longest House vote in history and surpassing the previous record set in 2021.
Johnson, who could afford to lose only three votes, held the vote open and cajoled GOP holdouts with help from Trump. The president spent much of Wednesday and the early morning hours Thursday speaking to individual Republicans while trying to allay misgivings about cuts to Medicaid, the state of the national debt and the GOP’s prized tax reductions.
The Speaker had also spent most of the day Wednesday trying to win over members of the conservative Freedom Caucus, who threatened to tank the bill amid deficit concerns, along with other reticient members.
One of the crucial holdouts was Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has been at odds with Trump over the megabill for weeks. During the call with Trump around 1 a.m. Thursday, Massie suggested he was ready to drop his opposition and support the rule if the president stopped attacking him, The Hill’s Mychael Schnell reported.
The president urged holdouts to deny Democrats “a win,” which turned out to be a potent political entreaty. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), who in May voted against the House GOP’s initial version of the megabill, said he is a “yes” on enacting Trump’s legislative agenda.
“I gotta say, no one puts a deal together like President Trump, he’s a master. But I think one of the other persuasive things was just looking at the Democrats’ reaction to it,” he said, referring to political pummeling from House and Senate Democrats.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), who is running for governor, said, “The president is the best closer in the business, and he got a lot of members to ‘yes.’”
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) said Trump complained to fellow Republicans about the nation’s borrowing authority, which must be raised by mid-August. “The big message from the president, and I agree, is the debt ceiling,” he told reporters.
SMART TAKE with BLAKE BURMAN
An ace popped up the sleeve of the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act that alarmed the gambling industry. The provision would limit deductions to 90 percent of losses for gambling and betting. Right now, the deduction is 100 percent. That means hypothetically, if someone won $100,000, and then lost $100,000, they’d be taxed on $10,000 of profit they didn’t make. The new provision would generate an estimated $1.1 billion in savings for the federal government, according to an estimate by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
“We’re going to try to take it out. If it doesn’t go back to Rules, we can’t, and then I’ll introduce a separate bill,” Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), who represents Las Vegas, told me. “It pushes people into the black market if they don’t do regulated gaming because they have a tax disadvantage.”
This could foreshadow follow-on legislation, with some lawmakers not liking what cards they were dealt, and not yet ready to fold either.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 Things to Know Today
- Kilmar Abrego Garcia said he suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological torture in a notorious El Salvador prison after being deported earlier this year, according to new court documents.
- Trump has called on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to resign “immediately” after a federal mortgage regulator accused the Fed chair of lying to lawmakers. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said his panel would look at the claims.
- The latest jobs report will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Ahead of today’s report, the numbers show the U.S. has been adding jobs at a respectable rate. A closer look at the data tells a different story.
Leading the Day
TRADE AND TARIFFS: Trump is playing hardball as his self-imposed July 9 trade deadline looms, backing away from an extended 90-day pause on reciprocal duties.
Trump is insisting trade rates can be set without deals from other countries, despite the White House spending weeks being adamant that dozens of agreements were in the works.
The Hill’s Alex Gangitano reports markets are now bracing for an impact similar to the volatility it saw following Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcement at the White House.
The president on Wednesday announced a trade deal with Vietnam, setting the tariff rate on the country at 20 percent. He said that, as part of the deal, Vietnam will give the U.S. access to its markets with no tariff rate. The U.S., however, will impose a 40 percent tariff on goods made in a country with a higher import tax rate but shipped through Vietnam.
Vietnam exports goods including clothing and footwear, and electrical machinery to the U.S.
▪ The Hill: Trump said Japan, which he characterized as “spoiled,” will likely not make a deal with the U.S. on a tariff rate ahead of the looming deadline next week.
▪ The Hill: Three Mexican financial institutions sanctioned by the Trump administration last week have felt a cascade of economic consequences following allegations that they helped launder millions for drug cartels.
IMMIGRATION & COURTS: A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Trump’s asylum ban at the southern border, determining it ran afoul of immigration laws protecting the rights of those seeking refuge in the U.S. The administration argued the move was needed to prevent an “invasion” at the border.
U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss said Trump went beyond his authority in drastically limiting asylum for those fleeing persecution and danger. Moss found Trump’s order violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, which lays out strict guidelines for who qualifies for asylum and how they can seek the protections — including by crossing between ports of entry.
▪ The New York Times: Legal actions in LA highlight the harsh tactics of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Separate challenges by immigrant rights groups and an American detained by federal agents accuse officers of racial profiling, brutality and unlawful detentions.
▪ Axios: Trump’s immigration crackdown ripples through the economy.
▪ Bloomberg: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is seeking advice on “how to fire people who don’t like us” as she moves to overhaul a workforce that she said “hasn’t been required to do much.”
▪ The New York Times: The Justice Department is exploring using criminal charges against election officials. Such a path could drastically raise the stakes for federal investigations of state or county officials.
Where and When
- The House is in session.
- The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will release the jobs report for June, an important indicator of economic growth and more data underpinning the Federal Reserve’s monetary options this year.
- The president will receive his intelligence briefing at 11:30 a.m. Trump and first lady Melania Trump will meet at 12:45 p.m. in the Oval Office with Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage held in Gaza, who was released by Hamas in May. The president will depart the White House at 4:35 p.m. for Des Moines, Iowa, where he is scheduled to headline an event celebrating the nation’s founding at the Iowa State Fairgrounds at 7 p.m. local time. He will return to the White House late tonight.
- The Senate will hold a pro forma session at noon.
Zoom In
STATE WATCH: Abortion will continue to be legal in Wisconsin after the state’s Supreme Court said Wednesday that a 176-year-old law is not an abortion ban, ruling that it has been superseded by more recent laws.
The 4-3 decision ended three years of tumult over the issue following the 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the question of abortion rights to states to decide. Abortion remains broadly legal in 31 states and Washington, D.C.
Wisconsin’s Republican Party denounced the ruling while Gov. Tony Evers (D) called it a “win for women and families, a win for healthcare professionals who want to provide medically accurate care to their patients, and a win for basic freedoms in Wisconsin.”
▪ The Hill: At least three cities and their Democratic mayors are part of a coalition suing the administration over a recently finalized regulation that limits enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance plans.
SAFETY BOARD FIRINGS: Trump on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to remove three Democrats on the independent Consumer Product Safety Commission. The president previously fired them, but the commissioners were reinstated by a federal judge. The Justice Department told the high court that Trump has the power to fire independent agency board members based on a May ruling by the Supreme Court endorsing an expansive view of presidential power.
CHANGING CHANNELS: Paramount Global, parent of CBS News, settled with Trump for $16 million in a lawsuit brought by the president challenging a “60 Minutes” interview last year with former Vice President Kamala Harris, the parties announced Wednesday. Paramount’s decision to settle and Trump’s success in pressuring news outlets that cover him using the heft of the federal government are reverberating across the media industry, reports The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo.
The settlement, which had been speculated about for months, could spark further lawsuits and hurdles for Paramount, which wants to secure a multi-billion-dollar merger with fellow entertainment giant Skydance. That proposed merger would come before the government. The settlement follows another $15 million settlement between Trump and ABC News after he accused the network of defamation.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Concerns about bribery allegations, angry CBS News staff and a looming high-stakes merger made for tense monthslong negotiations between Trump and Paramount.
TARGETED RHETORIC: New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (D), a democratic socialist running on a platform of unabashedly progressive policy prescriptions, is fielding negative political references and news media coverage that directly or indirectly points to his Muslim faith.
It may not be new in politics to explore religion during hotly contested campaigns, but it has expanded over time, according to analysts. In New York City’s melting pot, an estimated 57 percent of adults identify as Christian and about 3 percent of adults identify as Muslim, according to the Pew Research Center.
Elsewhere
ISRAEL: Israeli officials appeared cautiously optimistic on Wednesday over the possibility of a new Gaza ceasefire deal. Trump’s 60-day truce proposal comes ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s White House meeting next week.
But Israeli sources told CBS News that while there was strong backing for the terms in the proposal, Israel was not committing to it yet. Hamas also didn’t officially accept the deal, saying in a statement that mediators Qatar and Egypt “exerted intensive efforts to bridge the gap between the parties and reach a framework agreement that would pave the way for a serious round of negotiations.”
▪ The Associated Press: American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food.
▪ The Hill: Iran has suspended the country’s cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog after American and Israeli airstrikes targeted its most important nuclear facilities.
▪ The Hill: The Pentagon believes Iran’s nuclear program has been degraded by 1 to 2 years, a Pentagon spokesperson tells reporters.
UKRAINE: Moscow is seeking a breakthrough in its summer offensive at a time of uncertainty over U.S. support for Kyiv. In recent weeks, Russia has amassed forces and despite heavy losses has advanced in rural areas on crossroads running to the frontline.
Ukraine hawks are boiling over at the Pentagon’s decision to halt shipments of some lethal aid to Ukraine, with phone lines burning up as Kyiv and its supporters in Congress scrambled to keep supply lines open. At least two House Republicans released statements warning against such a move, but most in the party kept any concerns private pending more information directly from the administration.
Kyiv has warned that an interruption of U.S. weapons shipments will encourage Russia to prolong the war. On Tuesday, the White House said it had cut off some weapons deliveries, citing U.S. weapons’ stockpile levels.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “any delay or procrastination in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities would only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror, rather than seek peace.”
▪ The Associated Press: Ukraine is forging ahead with initial plans for joint weapons production with some of its international allies.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Why the halt to U.S. weapons couldn’t come at a worse time for Ukraine.
Opinion
- Trump stiffs Ukraine on arms, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
- Trump is playing a cynical game with Ukraine, former Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan writes in The New York Times.
The Closer
And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by summer adventures, we’re eager for some smart guesses about National Parks.
Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.
Which was the first National Park, established in 1872?
1. Yosemite
2. Yellowstone
3. Grand Canyon
4. Mesa Verde
How many National Parks are there?
1. 59
2. 63
3. 52
4. 48
Which state is home to seven of the 10 largest National Parks?
1. California
2. Wyoming
3. Alaska
4. Texas
General Sherman, the world’s largest tree, is found in which National Park?
1. Redwood National Park
2. Sequoia National Park
3. Petrified Forest National Park
4. Haleakalā National Park