00:00For all the talk of Donald Trump's big, beautiful bill dividing his Republican Party, few in the end opposed it.
00:06Still, it was a grueling session on Capitol Hill.
00:08By a vote of 218 to 214, Congress passed a sprawling tax and spending bill.
00:15Only two House Republicans opposing the bill earlier this week.
00:19Three Republican senators voted against it.
00:21It does mark a significant and hard-fought victory for the U.S. president and his domestic agenda.
00:28Joining me on the set is French 24's international affairs editor, Kedavan Gourjassani.
00:33Hello to you, Kedavan.
00:34Hi.
00:35He's called it his big, beautiful bill.
00:37He's set to sign it into law.
00:38How big of a victory is this for Donald Trump?
00:41Well, look, it is a huge political victory for Donald Trump because despite a slim majority in the Senate and an even slimmer one in the House,
00:51he has managed to get through this big, beautiful bill, as he calls it, which is going to help him get most of his policy agenda pushed through.
01:02And he managed to pass it before that self-imposed deadline of July 4th.
01:08But it's also not just a political victory or legislative victory, but it's a victory that is a symbol of his grip on the Republican Party.
01:19He managed to push through all the criticism, all the holdouts, with a mix of few concessions, a lot of pressure,
01:27and managing to getting people who are saying this is immoral, this is absolutely unacceptable, we will vote no, to in the end get to vote yes.
01:37And you gave the numbers, only three defections in the Senate, only two in the House.
01:43So it allows him to claim that big victory, and it allows him to capitalize and show his voters that he's actually following through on some of his campaign pledges.
01:54For example, making the first-term tax cuts permanent, a lot of tax cuts for the most wealthy American.
02:02He also followed through on his no tax on tips or no tax on overpay pledge.
02:08He also added $75 billion for immigration enforcement.
02:14We know immigration was a huge deal for his campaign.
02:17$45 billion for building more detention facilities, $30 billion for ICE to operate.
02:26But that means also that they had to find cuts somewhere, and those cuts come in the clean energy field,
02:32but also, as you mentioned, a lot of the welfare programs.
02:36That could be the issue for Donald Trump going forward, because a lot of these welfare programs actually help a lot of Republican voters in Republican states, Republican districts.
02:48So this is a huge political victory for Donald Trump.
02:52He's not, we guess, right now running for re-election.
02:56But the Republicans who voted yes on this bill, they'll be up, most of them, for the midterms in 2026.
03:02And that could come and haunt them for that campaign.
03:07Yeah, so political victory today, possibly a political gamble for tomorrow.
03:10How do you think Democrats are going to use this?
03:12Well, look, Democrats believe, if you listen to them, that this is the sort of silver bullet that they needed
03:18in order to hope to potentially win back at least the House in those 2026 midterms.
03:25And they've already started using this vote for the big, beautiful bill to target some of the most vulnerable Republicans in swing districts.
03:35Overall, they might be right, because when you look at the polling, while there are some individual provisions that are very popular,
03:43like no tax on tips, for example, a majority of Americans do oppose the bill in its entirety,
03:49especially when it impacts lower-income people.
03:53So the cuts on Medicaid or on SNAP, those are not popular.
03:57Also unpopular, increasing the debt by more than $3 trillion.
04:02And if you look at the polling, only about a third or less than a third of Americans approve of the bill as a whole.
04:09But, and it's a big but, that's when they know about what is actually in the bill.
04:15And the polling also shows that most Americans who are not political geeks, maybe like you and I,
04:21they don't look into it.
04:23And only about a third of American adults actually say that they've heard quite a bit about what is in that bill.
04:31Add to that a lot of those changes, especially the most unpopular ones,
04:35they're not going to come into effect until, surprise, surprise, the 2026 midterm.
04:41So people might not feel the burn of these changes before they go to vote.
04:47And, of course, the Democrats, they're still very much unpopular.
04:51Their message is muddled.
04:52They don't have a clear leader.
04:54So it might not be the actual big, beautiful silver bullet that they were hoping it would be.
