President Donald Trump notches the first major legislative victory of his second term in office after months of tumultuous negotiations on Capitol Hill.

The House passed the final version of the "big, beautiful bill" Thursday in a 218-214 vote after a tense overnight rules vote that was finalized just after 3:20 in the morning. The bill passed with 218 Republicans voting in favor of the legislation, while Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvaniajoined 212 Democrats and voted against the bill.

Leading up to the final vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) gave a record-breaking eight-hour, 44-minute speech on the House floor to stall the vote, even putting a fellow Democratic lawmaker to sleep. Vice President JD Vance joked in a post on X that a GOP rep texted him about how Jeffries' speech swayed his vote.

“I was undecided on the bill but then I watched Hakeem Jeffries [sic] performance and now I’m a firm yes."

"Democrats are focused on performing," Speaker Mike Johnson said ahead of the vote. "Republicans are focused on delivering."

Although the bill has been embraced by the president and the majority of the MAGA coalition, Massie and Fitzpatrick are not the only ones who took issue with the legislation.

'This Independence Day will mark the beginning of America's golden age.'

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Leading up to the vote, several House Republicans argued the Senate had "watered down" the bill beyond recognition. Conservatives were particularly concerned that the Senate did not properly address removing Biden-era green energy subsidies as well as limiting Medicaid access for criminal illegal aliens.

Other Republicans, Massie in particular, maintained that the spending levels in the bill are unsustainable.

"There’s no such thing as a tax relief without spending cuts," Massie said. "Gov’t can reduce the tax rate, but the spending still must be paid for. Gov’t must borrow money (which raises interest rates & requires more taxes later) or print money (which causes inflation). Both hurt Americans."

Many of these conservatives who had reservations over the bill met with the president at the White House on Wednesday morning leading up to the vote. In the end, Johnson managed to get the bill across the finish line with just a fewvotes to spare. Notably, Johnson passed the first version of the bill in the House with a 215-214 vote.

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Vance had to cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate on Tuesday after three Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Rand Paul of Kentucky — voted against the bill. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was also a tough sell, calling it "one of the hardest votes" she has taken during her time in the Senate.

After a record-breaking 27-hour vote-a-rama, Murkowski came around and voted to pass the bill, although she said the "bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President's desk."

Despite Murkowksi's plea to continue working on the legislation, the bill is headed right to the president's desk. Trump is expected to hold a signing ceremony at the White House on July 4.

"After years of failed policies, we stepped up to put Americans first and fulfilled our promises," Republican Rep. August Pfluger of Texas told Blaze News. "On July 4, 2025, we will return power to where it belongs — with the American people. This Independence Day will mark the beginning of America's golden age."

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Vance casts tiebreaking vote after Republicans betray Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'

President Donald Trump is getting closer to codifying the first landmark legislation of his second term, but the fight is not over.

After a record-breaking 27-hour voting marathon, the Senate narrowly passed Trump's "big, beautiful bill" in a 51-50 vote. Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote after three Senate Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Rand Paul of Kentucky — voted against the legislation.

'This performative theatre won’t solve the problem.'

The bill is now headed back to the House, where lawmakers will scramble to meet the president's ambitious July 4 deadline.

This deadline will not be easy to meet. During the drawn-out vote-a-rama, several key provisions failed to make it into the Senate's final draft, raising concerns among House Republicans.

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Several Republicans were outraged about one provision in particular. The Senate rejected an amendment that would reduce Medicaid funding for states that offer the social program to criminal aliens after the parliamentarian ruled against the provision, increasing the vote threshold from a simple majority to 60 votes.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

"If the Senate won’t do their job, DHS MUST," Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas said of the amendment. "Because this performative theatre won’t solve the problem. It’s great messaging, but it does nothing."

"Illegals should not get Medicaid," Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said in a post on X. "This should not have to be said."

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JD Vance rejects Democrats' narrative, names the 'real threat to democracy'

Democrats and elements of the liberal media have suggested ad nauseam that President Donald Trump, his supporters, and like-minded Republicans constitute threats to democracy.

After a Biden official's group got Trump temporarily removed in 2023 from the presidential primary ballot in Colorado, former President Joe Biden tweeted, "Trump poses many threats to our country: The right to choose, civil rights, voting rights, and America's standing in the world. But the greatest threat he poses is to our democracy."

Years after calling her political opponents "enemies of the state," Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in April 2024 that Trump is "a great threat to our democracy."

'It was a radical success.'

Less than a day after a Democratic donor who claimed "DEMOCRACY is on the ballot" in the 2024 election allegedly tried to assassinate Trump, New York magazine rushed to inform its readers that "Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, and saying so is not incitement."

It's clear that this mantra is little more than a political cudgel intended for those who threaten to diminish Democrats' hold on power. Nevertheless, its repetition has prompted some on the right to seriously reflect on that which actually threatens the American republic's democratic processes.

In his keynote speech at the Ohio Republican Party dinner in Lima, Ohio, on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance made clear that the apparent effort by Democrats to import and then normalize new voter blocs rather than engage and help homegrown Americans — to seek out a new demos as opposed to serving the current demos — is the real threat.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The vice president stressed that illegal immigration is "the most important issue confronting this country" and "the most important issue that was destroying this country for over the past four years."

"If I had stood here in October of 2024, and you had told me that after 45 days of the Trump administration we would have illegal border crossings down between 95% and 99%, I would have said, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. I believe the president is very serious about this, and I believe the president is very effective, but there is no way that we're going to have illegal border crossings down that much,'" said Vance. "I'm happy to report that one and a half months into the Trump administration, we had illegal border crossings down 99%. It was a radical success."

"I believe that saved the United States of America," continued Vance, "because we know exactly what the Democrats [would do] — not because we had to read their minds but because Democrats would go out and say that what they wanted to do with those 20, 25 million illegal aliens is give every single one of them the right to vote and turn them into permanent wards of the Democratic Party."

'Now, we have largely solved that problem.'

Democratic lawmakers have worked feverishly in recent years to give foreign nationals the right to vote.

Certain jurisdictions in California, Maryland, and Vermont allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. There are also indications that some noncitizens have been registered in Democratic enclaves to vote in federal elections — a troubling matter that the Trump administration is taking seriously.

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Orange County registrar of voters for refusing to provide the DOJ with records pertaining to the "removal of non-citizens from its voter registration list and for failing to maintain an accurate voter list in violation of the Help America Vote Act."

— (@)

Meanwhile, in the District of Columbia, noncitizens are allowed to vote in local elections so long as they were in the city for at least 30 days before the election. According to the Washington Post, of the over 500 foreign nationals who voted last year — including Ethiopians, Salvadorans, and Iranians — 310 registered as Democrat, 169 as independent, 28 as Republican, and 16 as Statehood Green.

Democrats evidently aspired to go far beyond local elections with their noncitizen voting push.

Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

The Democratic National Convention's 2024 platform endorsed a mass amnesty plan that would have paved the way to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens.

The Maine Wire noted that the platform incorporated language from the U.S. Citizenship Act, an inert bill from Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) that would change the word "alien" to "noncitizen" in the immigration code and allow illegal aliens to become "lawful prospective immigrants," thereby setting them on the path to legally voting in federal elections.

Even though Trump saw gains in each of the seven swing states in the 2024 election, giving voting rights to millions of yesteryear's illegal aliens could significantly alter America's political destiny.

"If we allowed that to happen, if we allowed the Democratic Party to import voters rather than persuade voters, that would have been the end of American democracy," said Vance. "You hear the American media say all the time that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. The threat to democracy is Democrats importing voters rather than persuading their fellow citizens."

The vice president proceeded to provide his audience with some good news.

"Now, we have largely solved that problem," said Vance. "If you look, for the first time in 50 years — the first time in 50 years — we now have net negative illegal immigration."

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Old Democrat Comes Back To Haunt Trump From The Grave

'Parliamentarian is wreaking havoc on Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill, and Republicans are letting it happen.'

The parliamentarian isn’t more powerful than the people

First we were told that unelected federal judges could dictate all policy, law, and appropriations. Now the excuse for inaction is the Senate parliamentarian.

Left-wing protesters chant “no kings,” but nearly every major Trump-era domestic policy was blocked by a court. Nearly 200 actions on immigration, personnel, spending, and transgender issues were halted or overturned by the judiciary. Today, the good provisions in an otherwise lackluster reconciliation bill are being gutted — not by Congress, not by voters, but by a Senate staffer.

Republicans now hide behind the parliamentarian to justify a bill that hikes the deficit, preserves green energy handouts, and leaves the welfare state untouched.

If Republicans refuse to overrule the courts, the parliamentarian, or anyone else standing in the way, what’s the plan? What’s the point of winning elections if Democrats, judges, and bureaucrats still call the shots? Do they really expect to get 60 Senate votes?

Over the past week, Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that a long list of provisions violate the Byrd Rule and can’t be included in the reconciliation bill. Among them:

Financial Cuts:

Require states with high food stamp overpayments to share in the cost (reduced from $128 billion to just $41 billion).
Cut $6.4 billion from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Cut $1.4 billion in Federal Reserve staff wages.
Cut $293 million from the Office of Financial Research.
Eliminate the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ($771 million).
Cut Pentagon funding if the department misses spending deadlines.
Ban food stamps for illegal aliens.

Policy Measures:

Repeal green energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Overturn EPA tailpipe emission rules.
Vacate certain court injunctions when plaintiffs don’t post bond.
Bar funding for sanctuary cities.
Allow states to arrest illegal aliens.
Require congressional approval of major federal regulations (modified REINS Act).

Republicans now hide behind MacDonough to justify a bill that hikes the deficit, preserves green energy handouts, and leaves the welfare state untouched.

The Byrd Rule has become an excuse to flush the conservative priorities and pass a mess. And let’s not kid ourselves — the parliamentarian had no objection to provisions that punish states for regulating AI. Under the Senate version of the bill, states can still regulate AI and data centers, but if they do, they lose access to BEAD broadband funding.

The good stuff in this bill may have been bait — added just to lure conservatives into voting yes, knowing full well the parliamentarian would knock it out. That’s why conservatives must pressure President Trump to do what Senate Republicans won’t: overrule MacDonough.

Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

Let’s get something straight: The Senate parliamentarian does not make the rules. The presiding officer does — and the majority party controls the chair. The office of parliamentarian didn’t even exist until 1935. The parliamentarian sits below the presiding officer on the rostrum, not above him. Her advice is just that — advice.

The Congressional Research Service puts it plainly: "As a staff official, neither parliamentarian is empowered to make decisions that are binding on the House or Senate. The parliamentarians and their deputies/assistants only offer advice that the presiding Representative or Senator may accept or reject."

JD Vance, as president of the Senate, can overrule MacDonough at any time. Here’s how: When Democrats raise a point of order against a GOP-backed provision, MacDonough may say it violates the Byrd Rule and must be stripped. But the presiding officer — Vance or his designee — can simply say no. That provision stays in the bill. The Senate then proceeds under the reconciliation process and passes the whole thing with a simple majority.

Trump can make this happen. He can threaten to send Vance to the chair if Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) refuses to play ball. Thune can demand MacDonough’s firing — just as Trent Lott did in 2001 when the parliamentarian ruled against Republican priorities.

Trump is right to be frustrated. On Tuesday, he demanded that Congress cancel the July 4 recess and finish the job. But he also needs to make it clear that he won’t accept a watered-down deal. He must draw red lines around immigration and the Green New Deal. The American people didn’t elect Elizabeth MacDonough. They elected Trump.

And no unelected staffer has the right to overturn the will of 77 million voters.

Exclusive: JD Vance tells BlazeTV's Steve Deace how Trump dodged the 'bad decision' his predecessors made in the Middle East

Friends and foes alike have expressed skepticism in recent days regarding President Donald Trump's approach to the Israeli-Iranian conflict. Trump appears to have once again earned their trust by neutralizing the Iranian nuclear program, striking a tenuous peace between Tehran and Jerusalem, and securing a U.S. exit out of what easily could have become another bloody Middle Eastern quagmire.

Vice President JD Vance provided BlazeTV host Steve Deace with critical insights on Tuesday both into the thinking that guided the president's successful actions in the Middle East and into how Trump avoided the damning misstep that tripped up his predecessors.

Vance, who deployed as a Marine to Iraq in 2005, indicated that he "always wondered kind of what went wrong" with past military interventions in the Middle East. This recent episode in the region buttressed his understanding that the answer is "that we allowed mission creep. In other words, we started with one mission, and then it turned into another mission, and it turned into another mission."

This phenomenon would account, in part, for why the U.S. military was formally involved in Afghanistan for two decades and in Iraq from 2003 until 2011 — protracted conflicts that claimed the lives of thousands of American service members and cost trillions of dollars.

Vance suggested that previous presidents lacked the clarity of focus and the restraint that Trump exercised in recent days.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

"You didn't have the kind of presidential leadership to say, 'We are going to do what we came to do, and then once we've accomplished that successfully, we're going to get out,'" Vance told Deace. "And what did the president say we needed to do? We needed to destroy the Iranian nuclear program. We did that, of course, with incredibly competent troops and, really, an amazing military operation."

"The president just never let that mission creep settle in to the way the generals were thinking about it, the [way] diplomats were thinking about it," continued the vice president. "I really have to give the president all of the credit here, because I think, look — American history has told us that given the situation that [Trump] was in, every American president of pretty much my lifetime has made a bad decision in the Middle East. He was able to get in there, do what he said he was going to do, and then put the region back on the path to peace."

— (@)

Vance indicated further that Trump has changed the nature of the game, particularly where international expectations go, noting that foreign powers have come to expect the U.S. to "permanently entrench ourselves in that region of the world; to try to build democracies; to build separate nations, sometimes even separate cultures within a country where you didn't have any democratic culture."

The reason why the U.S. defied expectations this time around is because the man in charge "has made it very clear that the only thing the United States is going to be on the hook for is accomplishing our national objectives and our national mission."

'We don't want to have to serve as the policemen of the world.'

While emphasizing a willingness from the Trump administration to engage in diplomacy, Vance emphasized that America's interests remain the top priority — that "America first" is Trump's guiding principle in such matters.

Deace suggested that many in the MAGA coalition have been torn between a love for Israel and a desire to limit American engagements in the Middle East, particularly those that might draw American troops abroad.

Vance indicated that Trump "has been able to thread the needle very well" by simultaneously recognizing Israel as a "very important ally" with which there are multiple opportunities for cooperation, and the need, both for the U.S. and Jerusalem, for the U.S. to give up the role of "policemen of the Middle East" and leave that responsibility to the Israelis and the "rational" Gulf Arab states.

"We want Israel and the Gulf Arab countries to police their own back yard," said Vance. "We don't want to have to serve as the policemen of the world."

— (@)

In addition to seeking further disentanglement from Middle Eastern affairs, the vice president suggested there is also room for criticism of the action taken on the part of friends in the region.

'I think so long as we have political leaders in America who are laser-focused on the United States, yes, we can be pro-Israel.'

Vance noted that while Israel "is a great friend of ours, and we are in agreement on the deep cultural value question," that "doesn't mean that on every question of foreign policy we're always going to be aligned."

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Vance cited as an example Trump's stern call Tuesday morning with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the president made clear that the ceasefire needed to be respected.

"I think so long as we have political leaders in America who are laser-focused on the United States, yes, we can be pro-Israel. Yes, we can say that our Israeli friends have a lot of, you know — there are a lot of ways in which we can work together," Vance told Deace. "Allies often do work together, but sometimes allies have disagreement, and I think we just have to be honest about that."

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East Palestine not forgotten: Vance confirms Trump admin will study fallout of nightmarish train disaster

Vice President JD Vance visited East Palestine, Ohio, on the second anniversary of the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern train disaster, which darkened the sky over the village with hazardous chemicals, poisoned the surrounding environment, and threatened the health of nearby residents.

"President Trump just wanted to deliver a message that this community will not be forgotten, will not be left behind, and we are in it for the long haul in East Palestine," Vance told locals in the village's firehouse.

Vance confirmed Thursday that the Trump administration is returning in search of answers and results.

Vance joined the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya Thursday in announcing a five-year, $10 million research initiative to "assess and address" the health fallout from the derailment.

According to HHS, this multi-disciplinary series of studies will seek to understand the health impacts of chemical exposures on short- and long-term health outcomes, "including relevant biological markers of risk"; monitor the community's health in order to take preventative measures and support their health care decisions; and connect community members with relevant experts and officials in order to properly address their health concerns.

'We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open.'

When the Norfolk Southern freight train consisting of 141 packed cars, nine empty cars, and three locomotives derailed in East Palestine in early 2023 due to a failed wheel bearing, 38 cars, 11 containing hazardous materials — including vinyl chloride, benzene residue, hydrogen chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, and isobutylene — went off the tracks.

Photo by US Environmental Protection Agency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

For fear that the fires engulfing the wreckage might trigger a "catastrophic tanker failure," railroad emergency crews conducted a vent and burn of five tanks of vinyl chloride, producing hydrogen chloride and phosgene gas — the latter of which was used to kill soldiers en masse in World War I.

The resulting columns of smoke that drifted over the village, which forced 2,000 residents to flee their homes, formed what the National Transportation Safety Board called a toxic "mushroom cloud."

After the controlled burn and amid reports of thousands of dead fish and dying livestock, hazardous materials specialist Silverio Caggiano told WKBN-TV, "We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open."

The NTSB indicated in a June 2024 report that the decision to execute the controlled burn "was based on incomplete and misleading information provided by Norfolk Southern officials and contractors. The vent and burn was not necessary to prevent a tank car failure."

Not only was the decision misguided; it was ruinous.

Thousands of local creatures were killed, nearby waters were heavily contaminated, and possibly cancer-causing airborne toxins were sent into the air across multiple states well beyond.

Blaze News previously reported that the Environmental Protection Agency's preliminary data in 2023 found that "concentrations for nine of the approximately 50 chemicals measured were relatively high in comparison to the levels considered safe for lifetime exposure."

"Overall, if ambient levels persisted for these chemicals, they could pose health concerns, either individually (e.g., acrolein, a known respiratory irritant) or cumulatively. Thus, subsequent, spatiotemporal analysis was pertinent," added the report.

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

East Palestinians reported various health issues in the wake of the derailment, including headaches, gastrointestinal illness, and respiratory and skin irritations.

Owing to the nature of the chemicals and the duration of their exposure, many in East Palestine feared that there could also be long-term health impacts, especially on mothers and children.

The vice president said in a video shared to social media on Thursday that despite significant concerns from those in the area impacted by the derailment, the Biden administration "refused to do anything to actually study the effects of these long-term exposures on the people of East Palestine. Well, now we have a new president and a great new secretary of health and human services."

'Once again, this administration is showing the American people what true leadership looks like.'

"The people of East Palestine have a right to clear, science-backed answers about the impact on their health," said Kennedy.

— (@)

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences indicated that it will distribute the committed $10 million in tranches of $2 million a year over the next five years for one to three awards. Experts have until July 21 to submit research proposals in hopes of securing funding.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya teased the initiative last month, telling Fox News' host Bret Baier he was looking forward to addressing "the health questions and the health needs of the American people with excellent, gold-standard research."

The initiative was celebrated by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), Republican Sens. Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, and Republican Reps. Mike Rulli and Dave Joyce.

"This funding will enable the people of East Palestine to have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that any potential for long-term health effects will be studied by the scientists at the National Institutes of Health," said DeWine. "I thank President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Secretary Kennedy for their commitment now and into the future."

"Once again, this administration is showing the American people what true leadership looks like — putting Americans first," said Rulli.

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