By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed his package of tax breaks and spending cuts into law Friday in front of Fourth of July picnickers after his cajoling produced almost unanimous Republican support in Congress for the domestic priority that could cement his second-term legacy.

Flanked by Republican legislators and members of his Cabinet, Trump signed the multitrillion-dollar legislation at a desk on the White House driveway, then banged down a gavel gifted to him by House Speaker Mike Johnson that was used during the bill’s final passage Thursday.

Against odds that at times seemed improbable, Trump achieved his goal of celebrating a historic — and divisive — legislative victory in time for the nation’s birthday, which also was his self-imposed deadline for Congress to send the legislation to his desk. Fighter jets and stealth bombers streaked through the sky over the annual White House Fourth of July picnic.

“America’s winning, winning, winning like never before,” Trump said, noting last month’s bombing campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, which he said the flyover was meant to honor. “Promises made, promises kept, and we’ve kept them.”

The White House was hung with red, white and blue bunting for the Independence Day festivities. The U.S. Marine Band played patriotic marches — and, in a typical Trumpian touch, tunes by 1980s pop icons Chaka Khan and Huey Lewis. There were three separate flyovers.

Trump spoke for a relatively brief 22 minutes before signing the bill, but was clearly energized as the legislation’s passage topped a recent winning streak for his administration. That included the Iran campaign and a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulingshe’s fought for.

After dark, chants of “USA, USA” rose from the picnic crowd on the South Lawn when Trump and the first lady, Melania, appeared on the Truman Balcony to watch the fireworks. They danced to “Y.M.C.A.” and waved goodbye to the crowd before they left for their home in New Jersey.

The budget legislation is the president’s highest-profile win yet. It includes key campaign pledges like no tax on tips or Social Security income. Trump, who spent an unusual amount of time thanking individual Republican lawmakers who shepherded the measure through Congress, contended “our country is going to be a rocket ship, economically,” because of the legislation.

Big cuts to Medicaid and food stamps

Critics assailed the package as a giveaway to the rich that will rob millions more lower-income people of their health insurance, food assistance and financial stability.

“Today, Donald Trump signed into law the worst job-killing bill in American history. It will rip health care from 17 million workers to pay for massive tax giveaways to the wealthy and big corporations, amounting to the country’s largest money grab from the working class to the ultra-rich,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement. “Every member of Congress who voted for this devastating bill picked the pockets of working people to hand billionaires a $5 trillion gift.”

The legislation extends Trump’s 2017 multitrillion-dollar tax cuts and cuts Medicaid and food stamps by $1.2 trillion. It provides for a massive increase in immigration enforcement. Congress’ nonpartisan scorekeeper projects that nearly 12 million more people will lose health insurance under the law.

The legislation passed the House on a largely party-line vote Thursday, culminating a monthslong push by the GOP to cram most of its legislative priorities into a single budget bill that could be enacted without Senate Democrats being able to block it indefinitely by filibustering.

It passed by a single vote in the Senate, where North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis announced he would not run for reelection after incurring Trump’s wrath in opposing it. Vance had to cast the tie-breaking vote.

In the House, where two Republicans voted against it, one, conservative maverick Tom Massie of Kentucky, has also become a target of Trump’s well-funded political operation. No Democrats voted for the bill.

The legislation amounts to a repudiation of the agendas of the past two Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, in rolling back Obama’s Medicaid expansion under his signature health law and Biden’s tax credits for renewable energy.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade and 11.8 million more people will go without health coverage.

Democrats vow to make bill a midterm issue

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin on Friday called the bill “devastating” and said in a statement that Trump’s signature on the legislation “sealed the fate of the Republican Party, cementing them as the party for billionaires and special interests — not working families.”

He predicted Republicans would lose their majority in Congress over it. “This was a full betrayal of the American people,” Martin said.

Trump complained Friday about Democrats opposing the bill, “and we knew that because their hatred of either the country or me or both is so great they didn’t vote at all and it’s terrible.”

He said their “standard line” is to say Republican legislation is “dangerous” or “everybody’s going to die” and “we can’t let them get away with it.” With his bill, Trump said, “it’s actually just the opposite, everybody’s going to live.”

“And I just want you to know, if you see anything negative put out by Democrats, it’s all a con job,” Trump said, defending a package that now is law.

Speaking in Iowa on Thursday night, Trump said Democrats “hate Trump — but I hate them, too.”

The package is certain to be a flashpoint in next year’s midterm elections, and Democrats are making ambitious plans for rallies, voter registration drives, attack ads, bus tours and even a multiday vigil, all intended to highlight the most controversial elements.

Upon his return to Washington early Friday, Trump described the package as “very popular,” though polling suggests that public opinion is mixed at best.

For example, a Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that majorities of U.S. adults support increasing the annual child tax credit and eliminating taxes on earnings from tips, and about half support work requirements for some adults who receive Medicaid.

But the poll found majorities oppose reducing federal funding for food assistance to low-income families and spending about $45 billion to build and maintain migrant detention centers. About 60% said it was “unacceptable” that the bill is expected to increase the $36 trillion U.S. debt by more than $3 trillion over the next decade.

By LISA MASCARO, MARY CLARE JALONICK, LEAH ASKARINAM and MATT BROWN Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans propelled President Donald Trump’s big multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill to final passage Thursday in Congress, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a Fourth of July deadline.

The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting for more than eight hours by seizing control of the floor with a record-breaking speech against the bill.

Trump celebrated his political victory in Iowa, where he attended the kickoff for a year of events marking the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary.

“I want to thank Republican congressmen and women, because what they did is incredible,” he said. The president complained that Democrats voted against the bill because “they hate Trump — but I hate them too.”

Trump said he plans to sign the legislation on Friday at the White House.

The outcome delivers a milestone for the president and for his party. It was a long-shot effort to compile a lengthy list of GOP priorities into what they called his “one big beautiful bill,” at nearly 900 pages. With Democrats unified in opposition, the bill will become a defining measure of Trump’s return to the White House, aided by Republican control of Congress.

“You get tired of winning yet?” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., invoking Trump as he called the vote.

“With one big beautiful bill we are going to make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before,” he said.

Republicans celebrated with a rendition of the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” a song the president often plays at his rallies, during a ceremony afterward.

Tax breaks and safety net cuts

At its core, the package’s priority is $4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term that would expire if Congress failed to act, along with new ones. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than $75,000 a year.

There’s also a hefty investment, some $350 billion, in national security and Trump’s deportation agenda and to help develop the “Golden Dome” defensive system over the U.S.

To help offset the lost tax revenue, the package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to the Medicaid health care and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people, and a major rollback of green energy tax credits.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade and 11.8 million more people will go without health coverage.

“This was a generational opportunity to deliver the most comprehensive and consequential set of conservative reforms in modern history, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the House Budget Committee chairman.

Democrats united against the big ‘ugly bill’

Democrats unified against the bill as a tax giveaway to the rich paid for on the backs of the working class and most vulnerable in society, what they called “trickle down cruelty.”

Jeffries began the speech at 4:53 a.m. EDT and finished at 1:37 p.m. EDT, 8 hours, 44 minutes later, a record, as he argued against what he called Trump’s “big ugly bill.”

“We’re better than this,” said Jeffries, who used a leader’s prerogative for unlimited debate, and read letter after letter from Americans writing about their reliance of the health care programs.

“I never thought that I’d be on the House floor saying that this is a crime scene,” Jeffries said. “It’s a crime scene, going after the health, and the safety, and the well-being of the American people.”

And as Democrats, he said, “We want no part of it.”

Tensions ran high. As fellow Democrats chanted Jeffries’ name, a top Republican, Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called his speech “a bunch of hogwash.”

Hauling the package through the Congress has been difficult from the start. Republicans have struggled mightily with the bill nearly every step of the way, quarreling in the House and Senate, and often succeeding only by the narrowest of margins: just one vote.

The Senate passed the package days earlier with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie vote. The slim majority in the House left Republicans little room for defections.

“It wasn’t beautiful enough for me to vote for it,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Also voting no was Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who said he was concerned about cuts to Medicaid.

Once Johnson gaveled the tally, Republicans cheered “USA!” and flashed Trump-style thumbs-up to the cameras.

Political costs of saying no

Despite their discomfort with various aspects of the sprawling package, in some ways it became too big to fail — in part because Republicans found it difficult to buck Trump.

As Wednesday’s stalled floor action dragged overnight, Trump railed against the delays.

“What are the Republicans waiting for???” the president said in a midnight-hour post.

Johnson relied heavily on White House Cabinet secretaries, lawyers and others to satisfy skeptical GOP holdouts. Moderate Republicans worried about the severity of cuts while conservatives pressed for steeper reductions. Lawmakers said they were being told the administration could provide executive actions, projects or other provisions in their districts back home.

The alternative was clear. Republicans who staked out opposition to the bill, including Massie of Kentucky and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, were being warned by Trump’s well-funded political operation. Tillis soon after announced he would not seek reelection.

Rollback of past presidential agendas

In many ways, the package is a repudiation of the agendas of the last two Democratic presidents, a chiseling away at the Medicaid expansion from Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and a pullback of Joe Biden’s climate change strategies in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Democrats have described the bill in dire terms, warning that cuts to Medicaid, which some 80 million Americans rely on, would result in lives lost. Food stamps that help feed more than 40 million people would “rip food from the mouths of hungry children, hungry veterans and hungry seniors,” Jeffries said.

Republicans say the tax breaks will prevent a tax hike on households and grow the economy. They maintain they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse.

The Tax Policy Center, which provides nonpartisan analysis of tax and budget policy, projected the bill would result next year in a $150 tax break for the lowest quintile of Americans, a $1,750 tax cut for the middle quintile and a $10,950 tax cut for the top quintile. That’s compared with what they would face if the 2017 tax cuts expired.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Joey Cappelletti and Chris Megerian contributed to this report.