President Donald Trump headlined the Iowa State Fair on Thursday night, hours after Republicans in Congress shepherded through a massive tax and spending package that provides tax cuts for wealthy Americans largely by reducing federal funding for social safety net programs.
The Context
Thursday’s vote capped weeks of nail-biting tension among Republicans as intraparty dissent threatened to derail Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which delivers on his top legislative priorities: cementing the sweeping tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit wealthy Americans, enacted during his first term, and substantially increasing funding for border security and immigration enforcement.
The Republican bill pays for the tax cuts and increased border security with deep spending reductions in critical social safety net programs like Medicaid and food assistance. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill could result in 11.8 million more uninsured Americans by 2034 and add nearly $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade.
Alex Brandon/AP
What To Know
Trump took the stage in Iowa shortly after 8 p.m. ET and many of his staunch allies in the right-wing media showcased the size of the crowd through online platforms.
🚨BREAKING: Tens of thousands just honored America at President Trump’s Iowa rally with a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem.
President Trump makes me PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! pic.twitter.com/JFHdveey9m
— Bo Loudon (@BoLoudon) July 3, 2025
Huge crowd at the Iowa State Fair breaks out in “USA” chants as Trump begins his speech kicking off America’s 250th year. pic.twitter.com/EArIwaSjYl
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) July 4, 2025
“We got … with all of the things we did, the tax cuts and rebuilding our military, not one Democrat voted for us and I think we use it in the campaign that’s coming up, the midterms because we’ve gotta beat them … with all of the things we’ve given and they wouldn’t vote only because they hate Trump,” the president said in Iowa. “But I hate them too, you know that?”
“I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them because I really believe they hate our country,” Trump said.
The president also claimed the GOP-led bill will rescue “over 2 billion family farms from the so-called estate tax or the death tax.” The current U.S. population is a little more than 342 million.
Trump attended the Iowa State Fair in 2023, five months before the first votes were cast in the Republican presidential primary.
At the time, more than 118,000 people packed the fair, according to CBS News. He won the Iowa caucuses in January 2024 by roughly 30 points.
On Thursday, the president’s flagship legislation, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed the House of Representatives 218-214, with every Democrat and two Republicans voting against the measure.
It initially passed the House in May and was sent to the Senate, where it underwent significant changes before being kicked back to the House. The bill will now go to Trump’s desk for signature.
What People Are Saying
Trump celebrated the bill’s passage, saying Thursday: “The people of the United States of America will be Richer, Safer, and Prouder than ever before … Together, we can do things that were not even imagined possible less than one year ago. We will keep working, and winning — CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who gave a record-breaking 8-hour and 44-minute speech delaying Thursday’s vote, said: “Republicans are trying to jam this one, big, ugly bill down the throats of the American people … Leadership requires courage, conviction, compassion—and yet what we have seen from this administration and co-conspirators on the Republican side of the aisle is cruelty, chaos and corruption.”
Jeffries added that that the bill was “an extraordinary assault on the health care of the American people.”
Democratic Representative Josh Riley of New York said of the bill on Wednesday: “This bill will kill good, blue-collar manufacturing jobs that we need to rebuild the economy in this country. It closes rural hospitals. It defunds health care. All to give trillions of dollars in tax cuts to your cronies. Don’t tell me you give a s*** about the middle class when all you are doing is s******* on the middle class.”
What Happens Next
Trump plans to sign the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on Friday afternoon.
Update 7/3/25, 9:58 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and context.