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The US Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to wade into the hot-button issue of transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports.The court said it would hear cases next term challenging state laws in Idaho and West Virginia banning transgender athletes from female competition.More than two dozen US states have passed laws in recent years barring athletes who were assigned male at birth from taking part in girls or women’s sports.The conservative-dominated Supreme Court’s decision to hear the cases comes two weeks after it upheld a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender minors.The Supreme Court also recently backed a move by President Donald Trump, who campaigned on the issue of transgender athletes, to have transgender troops dismissed from the military.Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at banning transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports.”From now on women’s sports will be only for women,” Trump said. “With this executive order the war on women’s sports is over.”The executive order allows federal agencies to deny funding to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete on girls or women’s teams.In a high-profile case, the University of Pennsylvania agreed this week to ban transgender athletes from its women’s sports teams, settling a federal civil rights complaint stemming from the furor around swimmer Lia Thomas.The Department of Education said that UPenn had entered into a resolution agreement vowing to comply with Title IX, the federal law which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program.It follows an investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights which found the university had violated Title IX by allowing transgender swimmer Thomas to compete in women’s competitions.Thomas became a lightning rod around the debate over transgender athletes in women’s sport after competing in female collegiate competitions in 2022. She had earlier swum on UPenn’s men’s team while undergoing hormone replacement therapy.Critics and some fellow swimmers said she should not have been allowed to compete against women due to an unfair physiological advantage.- ‘Discriminatory laws’ -The Idaho case accepted by the Supreme Court stems from the Republican-led state’s 2020 “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.”It was challenged by a transgender athlete at an Idaho university and lower courts ruled that it violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.West Virginia’s 2021 ban on transgender athletes was challenged by a middle school student who was not allowed to compete for the girls’ track team. An appeals court ruled that the ban was a violation of Title IX.”We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play,” Joshua Block, a senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.”Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status,” Block said.The Supreme Court will hear the cases during the term beginning in October and issue a ruling next year.

Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been arrested by US immigration officers and is being processed for deportation from the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.Chavez, a former world champion and the son of legendary Mexican fighter Julio Cesar Chavez, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Los Angeles on Wednesday after authorities determined that he was in the country illegally, Homeland Security said in a statement.He has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for involvement in organized crime and made fraudulent statements on his application for US permanent residency, it added.Homeland Security said Chavez is believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa cartel, one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States.Chavez, 39, is a former World Boxing Council middleweight world champion, but in his most recent fight was convincingly beaten by YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a one-sided cruiserweight bout in Anaheim, California, on Saturday.Homeland Security said Chavez had entered the United States legally in 2023 on a tourist visa that was valid until February 2024.In April last year, he applied for permanent residence status based on his marriage to a US citizen “who is connected to the Sinaloa cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.”According to the statement, US Citizenship and Immigration Services made a referral to ICE that Chavez was “an egregious public safety threat.”Authorities accused the administration of President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden of not making Chavez an ” immigration enforcement priority.”Chavez was allowed to re-enter the United States on January 4, 2025 at the San Ysidro port of entry, Homeland Security said.Trump campaigned for president promising to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States, and he has taken a number of actions since returning to the White House in January aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing border crossings.

US President Donald Trump visits the midwestern state of Iowa on Thursday to kick off a year-long celebration of America’s 250th birthday — and tout his own second-term presidency.The Republican will deliver a campaign-style speech followed by fireworks, hot on the heels of what he hopes will be Congress passing his “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill.It also comes the day before Independence Day on July 4, and has been sold by Trump as the start of celebrations to mark two and a half centuries since the foundation of the United States.But as with a huge military parade in Washington for the US army’s 250th birthday last month, it reflects Trump’s growing tendency to use the semiquincentennial festivities to boost his own image.”I am thrilled to announce that I will be traveling to one of my favorite places in the World, beautiful Iowa… to kick off the very beginning of our exciting Celebration of America’s 250th Anniversary!” Trump said on Truth Social earlier this week.”Iowa voted for me THREE TIMES, because they love my Policies for our Wonderful Farmers and Small Businesses, and they LOVE AMERICA!”Trump, 79, also said he would also be talking about how his trade policies affect farmers, a key demographic in Iowa and one of the voter groups that helped propel him to a second term in the White House.He is set to say that his hardline tariff negotiations with countries around the world, which have caused jitters on the markets, will benefit working class Americans. The America 250 committee, which is organizing the events over the next year, said the “Salute to America” event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds would also feature “patriotic entertainment and fireworks.”Iowa is well known as one of the first stops for primary campaigns in US presidential elections.Trump won the state by 13 points in 2024. He also easily took it in 2016 when he won the presidency for the first time — and in 2020 when he lost the White House to Democrat Joe Biden.Trump earlier this week dropped a federal lawsuit over an Iowa poll that wrongly forecast he would lose the state in November’s election against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.The president had sued renowned pollster Ann Selzer, her former employer the Des Moines Register, and the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett, over a poll that showed him trailing Harris by three points.The rally in a place famed for its role in US presidential elections will also throw the focus on who might succeed Trump as Republican candidate in 2028.His second son Eric said last week that he and other relatives may run for public office, fueling speculation of a Trump dynasty. Trump meanwhile has repeatedly teased trying for a third term, despite it being barred by the US constitution.

US lawmakers teed up a final vote on Donald Trump’s marquee tax and spending bill Thursday after bruising Republican infighting nearly derailed the centerpiece of the president’s domestic agenda.Trump appeared close to victory as Congress edged towards passing his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” despite misgivings in his party over a text that would balloon the national debt and launch a historic assault on the social safety net.The bill will be a major landmark in Trump’s political life, and comes after he scored recent major wins, including in the Supreme Court and with US strikes that led to a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.Speaker Mike Johnson had struggled through the night to corral his rank-and-file Republican members after the package scraped past a series of “test” votes in the House of Representatives that laid bare deep divisions in the party.But after its last procedural hurdle in the early hours of Thursday, the bill was on course for a final vote that would put it on Trump’s desk to be signed into law.”No, I don’t think they caved,” an upbeat Johnson said of Republican holdouts.”They deserved that amount of time to go through it and figure out the meaning and how it would be applied, and ask questions of the administration.”The timing of the vote slipped back as Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries continued a speech — lasting more than seven hours — opposing the bill in a tactic to delay proceedings.- Funds for mass deportation -Trump’s sprawling legislation squeezed through the Senate on Tuesday but had to return to the lower chamber for a rubber stamp of revisions.The package honors many of Trump’s campaign promises, boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive and committing $4.5 trillion to extend his first-term tax relief.But it is expected to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country’s fast-growing deficits, while shrinking the food stamps program and forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance scheme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch.While Republican moderates in the House are anxious that the cuts will damage their prospects of reelection, fiscal hawks chafed over savings that they say fall far short of what was promised.Johnson had to negotiate tight margins, and can likely only lose three lawmakers in the final vote, among more than two dozen who had previously declared themselves open to rejecting Trump’s bill.- ‘Abomination’ -The 869-page text only passed in the Senate after a flurry of tweaks that pulled the House-passed version further to the right.Some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their insurance coverage under the bill at 17 million. Scores of rural hospitals are expected to close.Johnson had been clear that he banked on Trump leaning on waverers, as the president has in the past to turn around contentious votes that were headed for failure.The Republican leader has spent weeks hitting the phones and hosting White House meetings to cajole lawmakers torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring his wrath.”What a great night it was. One of the most consequential Bills ever. The USA is the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, by far!!!” Trump said on social media Thursday as he scented victory.The bill underlines Trump’s total dominance of the Republican Party in his second term, and comes as he celebrates a Supreme Court ruling last week that curbed lone judges from blocking his radical policies.But House Democrats have signaled that they plan to campaign on the bill to flip the House in the 2026 midterm elections, pointing to data showing that it represents a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest.Jeffries held the floor for his Democrats ahead of the final vote, as he told the stories of everyday Americans whom he argued would be harmed by Trump’s legislation. “This bill, this one big, ugly bill — this reckless Republican budget, this disgusting abomination — is not about improving the quality of life of the American people,” he said.  

The US trade deficit widened more than expected in May, with both imports and exports declining as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs sent shock waves through the economy and snagged supply chains.Trade data published Thursday showed the world’s biggest economy logged an overall trade gap of $71.5 billion, in the month after Trump imposed a 10 percent duty on most trading partners before pausing steeper rates for dozens of these economies.This was an expansion from the $60.3 billion deficit in April, according to the Commerce Department.The figures, however, came as both imports and exports shrank in May.US imports were down 0.1 percent to $350.5 billion, as incoming shipments of goods ticked down.Imports of consumer goods dropped by $4.0 billion, with those of certain apparel and toys both sliding, although imports of autos and parts climbed.US exports, meanwhile, dropped by 4.0 percent to $279.0 billion, with declines largely seen in industrial supplies and materials, the report showed.US trade has been rocked by Trump’s sweeping tariff announcements since the start of this year, as companies stocked up to get ahead of expected levies and halted shipments to wait for high duties to come down.This was the case when Trump doubled down on tariffs impacting goods from China in April. Tit-for-tat tariffs on both sides surged to prohibitive levels before Washington and Beijing de-escalated tensions in mid-May.Trade is “at risk of introducing more volatility in the data,” said Bernard Yaros, lead US economist at Oxford Economics.This is especially as the world heads towards a July 9 deadline when Trump’s pause on higher duties for dozens of economies including the European Union, Japan and South Korea is due to expire.”A worst-case tariff outcome this month would apply further downward pressure on imports,” Yaros warned.The path forward is unclear and he expects levels to land somewhere between their current position and the steep levels initially unveiled in April.He cited a US deal with Vietnam announced Wednesday where the country averted the harsh tariff rate Trump first announced.But Yaros maintains that “the true health of the economy will be better distilled by the consumer and business spending figures, which are showing signs of weakness.”Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, expects Federal Reserve policymakers to look past the fluctuations in inventories as they decide on further interest rate adjustments.”There is not much in this report to alter the Fed’s view that the economy remains strong,” he said.

The US economy added more jobs than expected in June while the unemployment rate edged down, government data showed Thursday, offering signs of labor market strength despite worries over President Donald Trump’s tariffs.The data raises expectations that the US central bank will continue to hold interest rates steady at its July meeting, though economists warned of potential cracks beneath the surface.Job growth came in at 147,000 last month, rising from a 144,000 figure in May — which was also revised upwards — said the Department of Labor.The unemployment rate ticked down from 4.2 percent to 4.1 percent, and wage gains decelerated, the report added.Despite concern that the jobs market — a key source of support for the world’s biggest economy — may weaken as tariffs fuel uncertainty and add to business pressures, the latest headline numbers provide some reassurance.Analysts believe a solid showing diminishes the prospect of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in July — a move sure to further enrage Trump.The US president has repeatedly criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not slashing the benchmark lending rate more quickly, calling him a “stubborn mule and a stupid person.”With consumer inflation still above the Fed’s two-percent target and unemployment remaining low, officials are adopting a wait-and-see approach to monitor potential effects from Trump’s tariffs.If the labor market weakened quickly, the Fed could be inclined to lower rates sooner to boost the economy, even if inflation were not progressing downwards as swiftly as hoped.- ‘Less rosy’ -Economists, however, warned Thursday that the employment picture is “less rosy” upon closer inspection.”Almost all of the job gains came from just two sectors: government and healthcare. Hiring was anemic in other parts of the economy,” said Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long.She added that another concerning sign was the labor force participation rate dropping to its lowest level since late-2022.In June, the state government and health care sectors added jobs while the federal government continued shedding roles under the Trump administration’s cost-cutting drive.The federal government lost 7,000 jobs and employment is down by 69,000 since reaching a recent peak in January, the Labor Department report added.Salary growth also cooled from a 0.4 percent month-on-month increase in May to 0.2 percent in June. From a year ago, wage gains were up 3.7 percent, easing from the prior month as well.A consensus forecast by Briefing.com had expected overall job growth of 120,000.Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic said in a note that “private sector employment significantly moderated last month.”She added that many companies are hesitant to hire new staff and remain worried about the impact of Trump’s tariffs, even as they are not engaging in major layoffs yet.The US economy has fared relatively well since the Covid-19 pandemic, with a resilient jobs market allowing consumers to keep spending.But Trump’s tariffs on US trading partners, alongside steep levies on imports of steel, aluminum and autos, have dragged on consumer sentiment and fueled business uncertainty.That uncertainty has been accentuated by Trump’s approach of unveiling, then adjusting or halting measures — causing firms to hold off certain investments.With a further wave of tariff hikes potentially incoming next week, analysts are monitoring for fragility in the job market and signs that companies might pull back in hiring and expansion.For now, the figures bring relief to worried observers after data from payroll firm ADP sparked alarm Wednesday, as it reported that the private sector unexpectedly shed jobs.It is not uncommon for the ADP report to diverge from official figures, but analysts believe it can help understand the longer-term trajectory of the labor market.

The nuclear-powered US carrier George Washington arrived off the Philippine capital Thursday for a port visit, as the two allies increase defence cooperation aimed at contesting China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea.The Nimitz-class vessel’s port call came the same day that China’s first domestically produced aircraft carrier, the Shandong, sailed into Hong Kong.Beijing claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, through which more than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes, despite an international ruling its assertion has no merit.”The US Navy along with our allies and partners are committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the ship’s spokesman, Lieutenant-Commander Mark Langford, told AFP by email, without offering further details about the visit.”These operations demonstrate the commitment to stability in the region, a commitment we uphold throughout the year and regardless of current events,” Langford said, calling the Philippines a “long-standing and critical ally”.Manila and Washington have deepened their cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s South China Sea claims.Bound by a 1951 mutual defence treaty, the two allies conduct frequent maritime exercises in the South China Sea. The Philippine and US coast guards in May conducted their first-ever joint military drills in the archipelago nation’s coastal waters.The Shandong, which sailed off the northern Philippines in April, arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday after concluding combat drills in the western Pacific alongside fellow Chinese aircraft carrier the Liaoning.The US Department of Defense said in a December report that China numerically has the largest navy in the world, with a battle force of more than 370 ships and submarines.

US lawmakers teed up a final vote on Donald Trump’s marquee tax and spending bill for early Thursday after a bruising day of Republican infighting that threatened to derail the centerpiece of the president’s domestic agenda.Trump is seeking a green light in the House of Representatives for his Senate-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” — but faces opposition on all sides of his fractious party over provisions set to balloon the national debt while launching a historic assault on the social safety net.Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson spent much of Wednesday struggling to corral his rank-and-file members as the package scraped through a series of “test” votes that laid bare deep divisions in the party.It was set for a final vote to advance it from Congress to Trump’s desk around 8:30 am (1230 GMT) after passing its last procedural hurdle in the early hours.”We feel very good about where we are and we’re moving forward,” an upbeat Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. “So we’re going to deliver the Big, Beautiful Bill — the president’s ‘America First’ agenda — and we’re going to do right by the American people.”Originally approved by the House in May, Trump’s sprawling legislation squeezed through the Senate on Tuesday by a solitary vote but had to return to the lower chamber for a rubber stamp of the senators’ revisions.The package honors many of Trump’s campaign promises, boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive and committing $4.5 trillion to extend his first-term tax relief.But it is expected to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country’s fast-growing deficits, while shrinking the federal food stamps program and forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance scheme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch.While moderates in the House are anxious that the cuts will damage their prospects of reelection, fiscal hawks are chafing over savings that they say fall far short of what was promised.Johnson has to negotiate incredibly tight margins, and can likely only lose three lawmakers in the final vote, among more than two dozen who have declared themselves open to rejecting Trump’s bill.- ‘Abomination’ -Republican leaders had been hoping to spend just a few hours on Wednesday afternoon approving the package, although they had some breathing room ahead of Trump’s self-imposed Independence Day deadline on Friday.The 887-page text only passed in the Senate after a flurry of tweaks that pulled the House-passed version further to the right.Republicans lost one conservative who was angry about adding to the country’s $37 trillion debt burden and two moderates worried about plans for around $1 trillion in health care cuts.Some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their health insurance under the bill at 17 million, while scores of rural hospitals are expected to close.Legislation in the House has to go through multiple preliminary votes before it can come up for final approval, and a majority of lawmakers must wave it through at each of these stages.But there were warning signs early on as the package stumbled at one of its first procedural steps, with a vote that ought to have been straightforward remaining open for seven hours and 31 minutes — making it the longest in House history.Johnson had been clear that he was banking on Trump leaning on waverers, as the president has in the past to turn around contentious House votes that were headed for failure.The Republican leader has spent weeks hitting the phones and hosting White House meetings to cajole lawmakers torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring his wrath.”FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!” Trump thundered in one of multiple posts to his Truth Social platform that sounded increasingly frustrated as Wednesday’s marathon voting session spilled into Thursday.The minority House Democrats have signaled that they plan to campaign on the bill to flip the chamber in the 2026 midterm elections, pointing to analyses showing that it represents a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest.”Shame on Senate Republicans for passing this disgusting abomination,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.

An 80-year-old US novelist and her husband are among several people facing a possible trial in France over the illegal sale of gold bars plundered from an 18th-century shipwreck, after French prosecutors requested the case go to court.Eleonor “Gay” Courter and her 82-year-old husband Philip have been accused of helping to sell the bullion online for a French diver who stole it decades ago, but have denied knowledge of any wrongdoing.Le Prince de Conty, a French ship trading with Asia, sank off the coast of Brittany during a stormy night in the winter of 1746.Its wreck was discovered more than two centuries later, in 1974, lying in 10 to 15 metres (32 to 49 feet) of water near the island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer.The wreck was looted in 1975 after a gold ingot was discovered during a site survey. Archaeologists in the 1980s discovered fine 18th-century Chinese porcelain, the remains of tea crates, and three Chinese gold bars in and around the shipwreck.But a violent storm in 1985 dispersed the ship’s remains, ending official excavations.Years later in 2018, the head of France’s underwater archaeology department Michel L’Hour spotted a suspicious sale of five gold ingots on a US auction house website.He told US authorities he believed they hailed from the Prince de Conty, and they seized the treasure, returning it to France in 2022.Investigators identified the seller as a certain Eleonor “Gay” Courter, an author and film producer living in Florida.- 40-odd dives for gold -Courter said she had been given the precious metal by a couple of French friends, Annette May Pesty, today 78, and her now deceased partner Gerard.Pesty had told the “Antiques Roadshow” television series in 1999 that she discovered the gold while diving off the west African island of Cape Verde.But investigators found this to be unlikely and instead focused on her brother-in-law, now 77-year-old underwater photographer Yves Gladu.A 1983 trial had found five people guilty of embezzlement and receiving stolen goods over the plundering of the Prince de Conty.Gladu was not among them.Held in custody in 2022, he confessed to having retrieved 16 gold bars from the ship during around 40 dives on the site between 1976 and 1999.He said he had sold them all in 2006 to a retired member of the military living in Switzerland.But he denied ever having given any to his American friends the Courters.He had known the author and her husband since the 1980s, and they had joined him on holiday on his catamaran in Greece in 2011, in the Caribbean in 2014 and in French Polynesia in 2015, investigators found.The Courter couple were detained in the United Kingdom in 2022, then put under house arrest.French investigators concluded that they had been in possession of at least 23 gold bars in total.They found they had sold 18 ingots for more than $192,000, including some via online sale platform eBay.But the Courters claimed the arrangement had always been for the money to go to Gladu.- ‘Profoundly nice people’ -A prosecutor in the western French city of Brest has requested that the Courters, Gladu and Annette May Pesty be tried, according to a document obtained by AFP on Tuesday.An investigating magistrate still has to decide whether or not to order a trial, but prosecutors said a trial was likely in the autumn of 2026.The US couple’s lawyer, Gregory Levy, said they had had no idea what they were getting into.”The Courters accepted because they are profoundly nice people. They didn’t see the harm as in the United States, regulations for gold are completely different from those in France,” he said, adding the couple had not profited from the sales.Lawyers for the other suspects did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.Courter has written several fiction and non-fiction books, some nautical-themed, according to her website.One is a thriller set on a cruise ship, while another is her real-life account of being trapped on an ocean liner off the Japanese coast during a 2020 Covid quarantine.

Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill was in limbo early Thursday as Republican leaders in the US Congress scrambled to win over a group of rebels threatening to torpedo the centerpiece of the president’s domestic agenda.Trump is seeking final approval in the House of Representatives for his Senate-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” — but faces opposition on all sides of his fractious party over provisions set to balloon the national debt while launching a historic assault on the social safety net.As midnight (0400 GMT) struck, House Speaker Mike Johnson was still holding open a key procedural vote — the bill’s last hurdle before it can advance to be considered for final approval — more than two hours after it was first called.With no clear sign of the stalemate breaking, his lieutenants huddled in tense meetings behind the scenes with the rebels who had either voted no or had yet to come to the House floor.”We’re going to get there tonight. We’re working on it and very, very positive about our progress,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol, according to Politico.Originally approved by the House in May, Trump’s sprawling legislation squeezed through the Senate on Tuesday by a solitary vote but had to return to the lower chamber Wednesday for a rubber stamp of the Senate’s revisions.The package honors many of Trump’s campaign promises, boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive and committing $4.5 trillion to extend his first-term tax relief.But it is expected to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country’s fast-growing deficits, while forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program since its 1960s launch.While moderates in the House are anxious that the cuts will damage their prospects of reelection, fiscal hawks are chafing over savings that they say fall short of what they were promised by hundreds of billions of dollars.Johnson has to negotiate incredibly tight margins, and can likely only lose three lawmakers among more than two dozen who have declared themselves open to rejecting Trump’s bill.- ‘Abomination’ -Republican leaders had been hoping to spend just a few hours on Wednesday afternoon green-lighting the package, although they have a cushion of two days before Trump’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.The 887-page text only passed in the Senate after a flurry of tweaks that pulled the House-passed text further to the right.Republicans lost one conservative who was angry about adding to the country’s $37 trillion debt burden and two moderates worried about almost $1 trillion in health care cuts.Some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their health insurance at 17 million, while scores of rural hospitals are expected to close.Legislation in the House has to go through multiple “test” votes before it can come up for final approval, and a majority must wave it through at each of these stages.There were warning signs early in the day as the package stumbled at one of the first steps, with a straightforward vote that ought to have taken minutes remaining open for seven hours and 31 minutes — making it the longest House vote in history.Johnson had made clear that he was banking on Trump leaning on waverers, as he has in the past to turn around contentious House votes that were headed for failure.The president has spent weeks cajoling Republicans torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring his wrath.Trump pressured House Republicans to get the bill over the line in a private White House meeting with several holdouts on Wednesday.”What are the Republicans waiting for?,” he posted on his Truth Social platform just after midnight.”What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!”House Democrats have signaled that they plan to campaign on the bill to flip the chamber in the 2026 midterm elections, pointing to analyses showing that it represents a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest.”Shame on Senate Republicans for passing this disgusting abomination,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.