The Latest: July deadline for Trump’s tax and spending bill approaches

Monday could be a pivotal day for Senate Republicans, who are racing to meet President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July deadline to pass legislation that contains big tax breaks and spending cuts. The House is being called back to session for votes as soon as Wednesday, if the Senate can pass the bill.

Meanwhile, Trump says he is not planning to extend a 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond July 9, when the negotiating period he set would expire.

Here’s the latest:

Leavitt says Trump will sign an executive order ending U.S. economic sanctions on Syria and promoting a “path to prosperity and peace.”

The U.S. granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions in May. The press secretary said it was “an action that the president promised.”

Leavitt said Trump wants Syria to be “stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbors.”

Trump is set to sign the executive order on Monday afternoon.

Leavitt was asked about the push from some Republicans to have the Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani “denaturalized,” lose his U.S. citizenship and deported, but the press secretary said she had not heard Trump call for that.

“Certainly, he does not want this individual elected,” Leavitt said.

She said Trump is “always willing to work with everyone,” but said that she thinks that “the president would find it difficult to work with someone like that if he is elected.”

Following President Donald Trump’s lead, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a Trump appointee who has held off on benchmark rate cuts until the U.S. central bank can gauge the impact of Trump’s tariffs.

“I would remind the Fed chair, and I would remind the entire world, that this is a president who was a businessman first, and he knows what he is doing,” said Leavitt.

The White House spokeswoman opened Monday’s briefing by reading a note from Trump to Powell.

“Jerome, you are, as usual, too late,” Leavitt said, reading the correspondence from the president. “You have cost the USA a fortune and continue to do so. You should lower the rate by a lot. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost and there is no inflation.”

The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures price index, is tracking at 2.3% annually, slightly higher than the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed sees political independence as a key value for the integrity of the monetary policies it sets with the goals of stabilizing prices and maximizing employment.

Leavitt demurred when asked why Trump had not simply fired Powell, a move that could rattle financial markets. She said the question could be asked to Trump directly. Trump has said he could fire Powell if he wanted, but a recent Supreme Court ruling indicated that the Fed chair has a unique status.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says of the Trump-backed tax cut and spending bill seemingly on the verge of clearing Congress, “Republicans need to stay tough and unified during the home stretch, and we are counting on them to get the job done.”

Leavitt told reporters during her briefing that Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson were at the White House on Monday to discuss passing what Trump calls the “big, beautiful bill.”

Leavitt also said Trump was confident the bill would be passed and at the White House to be signed by July 4, an informal deadline the president has been pushing for weeks.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a news briefing Monday that Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, and Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds will join Trump and DeSantis Tuesday to view the detention facility in the Florida Everglades.

Leavitt said the new facility has only one road in and the only way out for those detained there is on a flight.

“It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain,” Leavitt said.

In the runup to a final Senate vote on President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax cuts and spending cuts, Republicans have voted down Democratic amendments to strike portions of the bill that would reduce funding for rural hospitals, food stamps and Medicaid.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined Democrats on an amendment to strike language that would force rural hospitals to limit their services. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Democrats on that vote and a separate Democratic motion to prevent the legislation from shifting some food stamp costs to states.

On a party line vote, Republicans also dismissed a motion by Democrats to strike any provision that would cut Medicaid.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said President Donald Trump is planning to visit on Tuesday a site in the Everglades where Florida officials want to detain migrants, which they have named “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The Florida Republican said the site “will be ready for business” by Tuesday.

“What’ll happen is you bring bring people in there. They ain’t going anywhere once they’re there, unless you want them to go somewhere, because good luck getting to civilization. So the security is amazing,” DeSantis said, hinting at the alligators that swim in the wetlands surrounding the abandoned airport site and prompting some laughs from the audience at an unrelated press conference.

DeSantis said he spoke with Trump over the weekend, and announced the site obtained approval from the Department of Homeland Security last week.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Trump is planning to visit on Tuesday a site in the Everglades where Florida officials want to detain migrants, which has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The Florida Republican said the site “will be ready for business” by Tuesday.

“What’ll happen is you bring bring people in there. They ain’t going anywhere once they’re there, unless you want them to go somewhere, because good luck getting to civilization. So the security is amazing,” DeSantis said, hinting at the alligators that swim in the wetlands surrounding the abandoned airport site and prompting some laughs from the audience at an unrelated press conference.

DeSantis said he spoke with Trump over the weekend, and announced the site obtained approval from the Department of Homeland Security last week.

Harvard University failed to protect Jewish students from harassment, the Trump administration concluded after an investigation, threatening to cut all federal funding from the Ivy League school if it fails to take action.

A federal task force sent a letter to Harvard on Monday finding the university violated civil rights laws requiring colleges to protect students from discrimination based on race or national origin.

It says investigators found Harvard was at times a “willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff” and that campus leaders allowed antisemitism to fester on the campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

It’s a challenge to the Republicans’ budgeting method for the big bill that Democrats decry as “magic math” and are trying to strike from the process.

GOP senators have argued that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are considered “current policy” and extending them indefinitely shouldn’t be counted in the total cost of the package.

Democrats argue that the Trump tax breaks, which are set to expire if Congress fails to act this year, are piling onto the national deficit. The actual vote is in the weeds – a motion to appeal the ruling of the chair that allows the budgeting method to move ahead.

Sen. John Thune says “it’s time to vote” on the massive tax and spending cuts package that has been moving through the Senate for several weeks and that Trump wants on his desk by July 4.

Thune pushed back on Democratic arguments that it would hurt working people, noting that Congress passed new work requirements for welfare recipients under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

The GOP bill includes new work requirements for Medicaid and Food stamp recipients, among other cuts to those programs.

“This is good for the American people,” Thune said.

The Senate is beginning an all-day session of amendment votes ahead of an expected final vote on Trump’s big bill of spending cuts and tax cuts. The session could last into the night.

Democrats are expected to offer amendments to strike tax breaks for the wealthy and and cuts to the Medicaid program, among many others.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in opening remarks that he will start with an amendment that would block any provisions that increase costs for working families or small businesses “to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”

“The American people will not forget what Republicans do in this chamber today,” Schumer said.

The Senate will try to sprint ahead on President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts after a weekend of setbacks.

An all-night session to consider an endless stream of proposed amendments, called a vote-a-rama, was abruptly postponed.

It’s now scheduled to launch when the Senate gavels open Monday. With Democrats united against the Republican president’s legislation, the voting could take all day.

The day ahead could be pivotal for Republicans, who are racing to meet Trump’s Fourth of July deadline to pass the bill. The House is being called back to session for votes as soon as Wednesday, if the Senate can pass the bill.

Speaking to Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, Trump reiterated his desire to send “a very fair letter” to each country letting them know what their tariff rates will be.

The president said “I don’t think I’ll need to” extend the pause on higher tariffs, which are supposed to take effect on July 9.

He mused about what one of his letters could say. “Dear Mr. Japan, here’s the story, you’re going to pay a 25% tariff on your cars,” he said.

Congo’s foreign minister dismisses skepticism about the Trump administration’s mediation role in a peace deal for her mineral-rich country, telling the Associated Press she is confident the U.S. will uphold its part of the deal.

Therese Kayikwamba Wagner spoke to the AP after signing a deal with her Rwanda counterpart to end decades of bloody fighting in eastern Congo. The Trump administration agreed to use its influence to honor the press both countries to honor the deal. In return, the U.S. hopes for improved American access to east Congo’s critical minerals.

Some Congolese are skeptical. They fear the U.S. will take the minerals without helping calm a conflict that has killed 6 million.

The United States “has been a reliable partner on many other issues that we have dealt with,” Wagner told the AP.

“So there is no doubt in this moment … when it comes to the credibility of the U.S as a partner, be it for a peace process where we have signed a very important agreement today or for investment from the U.S.,” she said.