President Trump is ramping up pressure on Senate Republicans to clear his major policy bill and blow through whatever procedural obstacles may be in the way ahead of a key vote series.
The Senate is expected to begin a series of marathon votes on its version of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” overnight after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Vice President Vance struck a deal Saturday night to save the bill from stalling.
The deal hatched in Thune’s office paved the way for Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to flip his “no” vote on proceeding with the bill to “aye” and for Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) to also vote for the bill.
As Republicans and Democrats battle over whether the bill violates key reconciliation rules, Trump is urging Senate Republicans to overrule the Senate parliamentarian and protect key provisions of the bill.
On the Senate floor, Democrats made several parliamentary inquiries of the Senate’s presiding chair to lay the groundwork to challenge Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) use of a “current policy” budget baseline to score the extension of the 2017 tax cuts as not adding to the deficit.
“This is the nuclear option. It’s just hidden behind a whole lot of Washington, D.C., lingo,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, declared on the Senate floor.
Earlier in the day, Trump went after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) again on Sunday, saying he “hurt the great people of North Carolina” and calling him a “talker and complainer.”
“Thom Tillis has hurt the great people of North Carolina,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday morning. “Even on the catastrophic flooding, nothing was done to help until I took office. Then a MIRACLE took place! Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER!”
Tillis shortly after announced he will not seek reelection to the Senate next year, firing a political shockwave into the midterm cycle after he said he would oppose President Trump’s mammoth tax package.
Plus, on Saturday, tech billionaire Elon Musk again slammed Trump’s bill.
“Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican Party,” Musk said in a post on the social platform X on Saturday.
Sunday shows will be dominated by lawmakers from both parties, many of them senators likely to be gearing up for a mammoth day on Capitol Hill. The Democrats’ plan to force Senate clerks to read the entirety of the nearly 1,000-page bill, followed by an unlimited “vote-a-rama” spree of amendments from both sides of the aisle that could continue into the wee hours of the morning.
Read the full Sunday shows lineup here and follow along below for today’s updates.
