First Lady Melania Trump celebrated the Fourth of July, which coincided with the signing of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” by emulating her husband’s signature dance on the balcony of the White House.
Melania struck a pose as she shimmied alongside the president while winding down their Independence Day celebrations.
The “Trump Dance” consists of the commander-in-chief rhythmically punching the air while swaying his hips, oftentimes to songs featured at many of his campaign rallies, like the “Y.M.C.A.”
The president was showing off his moves Friday when his wife joined along as the two rocked the night away.
Melania waved her open palms up and down as she bounced on her feet while Trump watched on adoringly.
Trump celebrated America’s 249th Independence Day by signing his sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law.
Many MAGA fanatics have taken to using Trump’s dance to ring in monumental celebrations, including his second-term victory in November as a flash mob overtook Staten Island.
Athletes too, namely those with UFC and WWE, started to adopt the moves as a victory dance.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law a massive package of tax and spending cuts at the White House on Friday, staging an outdoor ceremony on the Fourth of July holiday that took on the air of a Trump political rally.
With military jets flying overhead and hundreds of supporters in attendance, Trump signed the bill one day after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the signature legislation of the president's second term.
The bill, which will fund Trump's immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent, and is expected to knock millions of Americans off health insurance, was passed with a 218-214 vote after an emotional debate on the House floor.
"I've never seen people so happy in our country because of that, because so many different groups of people are being taken care of: the military, civilians of all types, jobs of all types," Trump said at the ceremony, thanking House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune for leading the bill through the two houses of Congress.
"So you have the biggest tax cut, the biggest spending cut, the largest border security investment in American history," Trump said.
Trump scheduled the ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House for the July 4 Independence Day holiday, replete with a flyover by stealth bombers and fighter jets like those that took part in the recent U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran. Hundreds of Trump supporters attended, including White House aides, members of Congress, and military families.
[1/7]U.S. President Donald Trump presents a sweeping spending and tax legislation, known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," after he signed it, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 4, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis Purchase Licensing Rights
After a speech that included boastful claims about the ascendance of America on his watch, Trump signed the bill, posed for pictures with Republican congressional leaders and members of his cabinet, and waded through the crowd of happy supporters.
The bill's passage amounts to a big win for Trump and his Republican allies, who have argued it will boost economic growth, while largely dismissing a nonpartisan analysis predicting it will add more than $3 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion debt.
While some lawmakers in Trump's party expressed concerns over the bill's price tag and its hit to healthcare programs, in the end, just two of the House's 220 Republicans voted against it, joining all 212 Democrats in opposition.
The tense standoff over the bill included a record-long floor speech by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who spoke for eight hours and 46 minutes, blasting the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would strip low-income Americans of federally backed health insurance and food aid benefits.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin predicted the law would cost Republicans votes in congressional elections in 2026.
"Today, Donald Trump sealed the fate of the Republican Party, cementing them as the party for billionaires and special interests - not working families," Martin said in a statement. "This legislation will hang around the necks of the GOP for years to come. This was a full betrayal of the American people. Today, we are putting Republicans on notice: you will lose your majority."
Texas authorities may not enforce a Republican-backed state law that would let them arrest and prosecute people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a divided federal appeals court ruled late on Thursday.
A 2-1 panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction that blocked enforcement of the disputed law, which former Democratic President Joe Biden's administration had gone to court to challenge.
Republican President Donald Trump's administration dropped the federal government's case, but the Texas law known as SB4 had continued to be challenged by, among others, the immigrant rights group Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which argued federal law preempted the state's.
The law, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed in December 2023, would make it a state crime to illegally enter or re-enter Texas from a foreign country and would empower state judges to order that violators leave the United States, with prison sentences up to 20 years for those who refuse to comply.
U.S. Circuit Judge Priscilla Richman, writing for the New Orleans-based court's majority, said that for nearly 150 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the power to control immigration was exclusively a federal power.
Relying on a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down parts of an Arizona immigration law, she said the Texas law, if allowed to be enforced by the Texas Department of Public Safety, would interfere with the federal government's ability to enforce complex U.S. immigration laws.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, vowed to appeal the decision, saying, "I will always fight to stop illegal immigration."
The ruling upheld a lower-court judge's February 2024 preliminary injunction. The U.S. Supreme Court, a month later, briefly allowed the law to take effect, but the 5th Circuit, within hours, halted it pending further review.
The opinion by Richman, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, was joined by U.S. Circuit Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a Biden appointee.
U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham, a Trump appointee, dissented. He said the majority treated as irrelevant that Trump has been encouraging states to aid his administration's efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement.
"It is a sad day for the millions of Americans who are concerned about illegal immigration and who voiced those concerns at ballot boxes across Texas and the Nation," Oldham wrote.
Cody Wofsy, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement welcomed the ruling, saying state immigration laws like the one Texas adopted have been repeatedly rejected by courts and "are deeply harmful to our communities.”
Now that the budget bill has passed Congress, we can see what the projections look like for deficits, government debt, and debt service expenses. In brief, the bill is expected to lead to spending of about $7 trillion a year with inflows of about $5 trillion a year, so the debt, which is now about 6x of the money taken in, 100 percent of GDP, and about $230,000 per American family, will rise over ten years to about 7.5x the money taken in, 130 percent of GDP, and $425,000 per family. That will increase interest and principal payments on the debt from about $10 trillion ($1 trillion in interest, $9 trillion in principal) to about $18 trillion (of which $2 trillion is interest payments), which will lead to either a big squeezing out (and cutting off) of spending and/or unimaginable tax increases, or a lot of printing and devaluing of money and pushing interest rates to unattractively low levels. This printing and devaluing is not good for those holding bonds as a store of wealth, and what’s bad for bonds and US credit markets is bad for everyone because the US Treasury market is the backbone of all capital markets, which are the backbones of our economic and social conditions. Unless this path is soon rectified to bring the budget deficit from roughly 7% of GDP to about 3% by making adjustments to spending, taxes, and interest rates, big, painful disruptions will likely occur.
The Top Five tax changes for the wealthy in the Big Beautiful Bill.
1️⃣ SALT — Surprisingly, the Senate largely followed the House with the new SALT cap increase, going from $10,000 to $40,000 for those making less than $500,000, with the income threshold rising 1% a year for inflation. And it preserves the pass-through entity loophole.
2️⃣ Qualified Small Business Stock – Entrepreneurs and investors in small businesses will cheer a change in the QSBS, designed to encourage small business investment and creation. The bill raises the threshold to qualify as a “small business” from $50 million to $75 million and increases the exclusion from $10 million to $15 million.
3️⃣ The estate and gift tax – Maybe the best news of all for the wealthy: the estate and gift tax exemption would increase to $15 million or $30 million for couples. It will be made permanent, and the exemption will be indexed for inflation.
4️⃣ Itemized deductions –Taxpayers in the top bracket will have to subtract 2/37th from the value of each dollar deducted over the threshold. The net effect is that top taxpayers will only get a deduction benefit of 35 cents for every dollar, rather than 37 cents.
5️⃣ Philanthropy –The bill decreases the value of the charitable deduction for high-income taxpayers by capping itemized deductions and sets a new 0.5% floor for the itemized charitable deduction. So someone with $1 million in adjusted gross income wouldn’t get a tax break on the first $5,000 of donations.
The Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts incentives for renewable energy, but adds more subsidies for promoting fossil fuels. For example, the law slashes the royalties that producers pay the government for pumping oil and gas on federal lands, encouraging higher output.
The law also spurs oil companies to use the carbon capture tax credit to produce more crude. The tax credit was designed to support nascent technology that captures carbon emissions and stores them underground. Under Trump’s bill, producers would receive an increased tax benefit for injecting those emissions into wells to produce more oil.
Ironically, we’ve talked in class about how the oil industry is hesitant to “drill, baby, drill” because it expands supply and reduces prices and profits. Recall how the Middle East can produce oil so much cheaper than the U.S., so we need high oil prices to keep U.S. oil economically viable.
So America will focus on oil and gas, while the rest of the world moves toward renewable energy and electric vehicles.
1️⃣ SALT — Surprisingly, the Senate largely followed the House with the new SALT cap increase, going from $10,000 to $40,000 for those making less than $500,000, with the income threshold rising 1% a year for inflation. And it preserves the pass-through entity loophole.
2️⃣ Qualified Small Business Stock – Entrepreneurs and investors in small businesses will cheer a change in the QSBS, designed to encourage small business investment and creation. The bill raises the threshold to qualify as a “small business” from $50 million to $75 million and increases the exclusion from $10 million to $15 million.
3️⃣ The estate and gift tax – Maybe the best news of all for the wealthy: the estate and gift tax exemption would increase to $15 million or $30 million for couples. It will be made permanent, and the exemption will be indexed for inflation.
4️⃣ Itemized deductions –Taxpayers in the top bracket will have to subtract 2/37th from the value of each dollar deducted over the threshold. The net effect is that top taxpayers will only get a deduction benefit of 35 cents for every dollar, rather than 37 cents.
5️⃣ Philanthropy –The bill decreases the value of the charitable deduction for high-income taxpayers by capping itemized deductions and sets a new 0.5% floor for the itemized charitable deduction. So someone with $1 million in adjusted gross income wouldn’t get a tax break on the first $5,000 of donations.
The Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts incentives for renewable energy, but adds more subsidies for promoting fossil fuels. For example, the law slashes the royalties that producers pay the government for pumping oil and gas on federal lands, encouraging higher output.
The law also spurs oil companies to use the carbon capture tax credit to produce more crude. The tax credit was designed to support nascent technology that captures carbon emissions and stores them underground. Under Trump’s bill, producers would receive an increased tax benefit for injecting those emissions into wells to produce more oil.
Ironically, we’ve talked in class about how the oil industry is hesitant to “drill, baby, drill” because it expands supply and reduces prices and profits. Recall how the Middle East can produce oil so much cheaper than the U.S., so we need high oil prices to keep U.S. oil economically viable.
So America will focus on oil and gas, while the rest of the world moves toward renewable energy and electric vehicles.
Winners of “Big Beautiful Bill”:
• High-earning tax payers
•Oil and gas industry
•ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
•Military (more spending)
•Alaska (provisions in the bill, aimed at buying off the vote of Senator Lisa Murkowski, benefit fisherman and whalers in Alaska, and exempt Alaska from cuts in social services—mind you, almost no one lives in Alaska and as far as I’m concerned it should be sold to Canada to raise money for universal healthcare)
Losers:
•Medicaid and Food Stamp Recipients (Trump promised not to cut Medicaid, and he did—there is a schism between Trump’s voter base, mainly working class, and pre-Trump era Republican ideology around offering minimal government services, big question is whether Republicans gets punished for this in midterm elections, I wouldn’t count on it)
•Rural Hospitals
•Clean Energy Industry
•Those Concerned About the Deficit (despite messaging from Republicans, this law increases the deficit/debt)
•Those holding US dollars (see above re: deficit)
• High-earning tax payers
•Oil and gas industry
•ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
•Military (more spending)
•Alaska (provisions in the bill, aimed at buying off the vote of Senator Lisa Murkowski, benefit fisherman and whalers in Alaska, and exempt Alaska from cuts in social services—mind you, almost no one lives in Alaska and as far as I’m concerned it should be sold to Canada to raise money for universal healthcare)
Losers:
•Medicaid and Food Stamp Recipients (Trump promised not to cut Medicaid, and he did—there is a schism between Trump’s voter base, mainly working class, and pre-Trump era Republican ideology around offering minimal government services, big question is whether Republicans gets punished for this in midterm elections, I wouldn’t count on it)
•Rural Hospitals
•Clean Energy Industry
•Those Concerned About the Deficit (despite messaging from Republicans, this law increases the deficit/debt)
•Those holding US dollars (see above re: deficit)
The House narrowly passed the bill ahead of Trump’s July 4 deadline. Here’s a quick snapshot:
✅ Winners:
- Multimillionaires and wealthy families: Estate tax exemption increases to $15M per person and $30M per couple. 2017 tax cuts made permanent.
- Private equity & venture capital: Carried interest loophole preserved.
- Manufacturers and fossil fuels: Bonus depreciation and R&D credits made permanent. Oil & gas get more drilling access.
- Small business owners: Pass-through 20% deduction now permanent.
- Parents: Higher child tax credit & $1,000 “Trump baby accounts.”
- Defence contractors & space industry: Big increases in spending.
- Telecom & 5G players: Huge auction of radio spectrum.
- Car dealers: Interest on loans for US-made cars is deductible.
❌ Losers:
- Low-income Americans: Cuts to Medicaid & food stamps, new work requirements.
- Renewables & EVs: Climate credits rolled back, EV subsidies eliminated.
- Elite universities: Endowment taxes jump to as high as 8%.
- Immigrants: New 1% tax on remittances, limits on ACA premium credits.
- Gamblers: Can only deduct 90% of losses, increasing taxable income.
- Some tech giants: State-level AI regulation ban removed, opening door to patchwork rules.
👉 Bottom line: Big wins for investors, private capital, fossil fuels, and defence. Tougher terrain ahead for low-income households, clean energy, immigrants, and the next generation of tech.
✅ Winners:
- Multimillionaires and wealthy families: Estate tax exemption increases to $15M per person and $30M per couple. 2017 tax cuts made permanent.
- Private equity & venture capital: Carried interest loophole preserved.
- Manufacturers and fossil fuels: Bonus depreciation and R&D credits made permanent. Oil & gas get more drilling access.
- Small business owners: Pass-through 20% deduction now permanent.
- Parents: Higher child tax credit & $1,000 “Trump baby accounts.”
- Defence contractors & space industry: Big increases in spending.
- Telecom & 5G players: Huge auction of radio spectrum.
- Car dealers: Interest on loans for US-made cars is deductible.
❌ Losers:
- Low-income Americans: Cuts to Medicaid & food stamps, new work requirements.
- Renewables & EVs: Climate credits rolled back, EV subsidies eliminated.
- Elite universities: Endowment taxes jump to as high as 8%.
- Immigrants: New 1% tax on remittances, limits on ACA premium credits.
- Gamblers: Can only deduct 90% of losses, increasing taxable income.
- Some tech giants: State-level AI regulation ban removed, opening door to patchwork rules.
👉 Bottom line: Big wins for investors, private capital, fossil fuels, and defence. Tougher terrain ahead for low-income households, clean energy, immigrants, and the next generation of tech.
Macy’s Fireworks, New York City#Happy4thofJuly #4thofJuly #4thofjuly2025 pic.twitter.com/EnoYUErNOj
— NewYorkCityKopp (@newyorkcitykopp) July 5, 2025
A beautiful view from the bow of the “Father Dan” fireboat. Thank you to all agencies working today to make the July 4th 2025 fireworks event safe & organized. pic.twitter.com/DWI6lC9mhm
— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) July 5, 2025
Gavin Newsom to California on July 4 during covid: NO fireworks!
— Cari Kelemen (@KelemenCari) July 5, 2025
Los Angeles:
pic.twitter.com/LOzMaRXQmy
There’s an amazing amount of fireworks across Chicago tonight. You love to see it. Happy Fourth! pic.twitter.com/V1oZ2ZE9Wf
— David French (@DavidAFrench) July 5, 2025
🎆 Fireworks light up the Philly sky!
— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) July 5, 2025
Independence Day celebrations outside Lincoln Financial Field — football meets the Fourth of July 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/pGmkufBT3D
Fireworks from Miami Beach and Key Biscayne pic.twitter.com/QNrghy2I7X
— Trini in the City of Miami (@High_Rise_Trini) July 5, 2025