The fate of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” remains uncertain

The Senate geared up Sunday for an all-night session of debate and amendment votes on the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill,” after Republicans narrowly advanced the measure in a 51-49 vote that set up more push-and-pull before final passage.

Only two Republicans opposed advancing the bill: Sens. Thom Tillis and Rand Paul. Hours later, Tillis announced he won’t seek reelection next year, likely assessing that his opposition to the bill would lead to President Trump calling to primary him.

Trump berated Tillis in mutiple Truth Social posts, saying he was making a “big mistake” and that he would be meeting potential primary challenges as he was “looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina.”

While GOP leadership overcame the loss of two votes from the party last night, they are still working to firm up support from Republican holdouts who want to see changes to the bill before a final vote.

Democrats are expected to use all 10 hours they are allotted. Republicans may use only a small portion of their time for debate, but it’s unclear how much. Then the Senate would begin its “vote-a-rama” — another lengthy process in which lawmakers will propose and vote on a series of amendments, giving Democrats an opportunity to put Republicans on the spot.

At least one GOP holdout, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, has signaled she will offer her own amendments to the legislation, which is an unusual move in a Republican bill. The multitrillion-dollar package would lower federal taxes, boost military and border spending, and downsize benefit programs, including Medicaid.

Onetime Trump ally Elon Musk renewed his criticism of this bill, saying on social media “the latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country.”

Additionally, Musk referred to the bill as “political suicide” for the Republican party, citing poll data that showed an approval of his stance against the measure. Musk went on to say that the bill “raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, the biggest increase in history, putting America in the fast lane to debt slavery.”

There is still a long way before this bill can get to President Trump’s desk, and there will no doubt be some dealmaking and compromises along the way. But this is something that Mr Trump views as important to pass, so it is likely to happen in some way.