Trump celebrates signing of narrowly passed bill during White House July 4 event: Live updates

Live coverage of President Donald Trump’s ”Big, Beautiful Bill” and July 4 celebration has paused.

Here’s everything you need to know:

Fireworks are lighting the skies up and down the East Coast this Independence Day.

In Washington, D.C., President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump celebrated America’s 249th birthday by watching fireworks over the National Mall from the White House.

Earlier Friday, Trump blurred an Independence Day celebration with military families with a signing of his ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.”

Fireworks exploded for nearly 30 minutes over the nation’s capital on Friday night.

One of Trump’s signature songs, “Y.M.C.A.,” played as people gathered on the South Lawn of the White House to view the fireworks show.

Read more from Katie Hawkinson:

A day before President Donald Trump stood on the White House balcony alongside First Lady Melania Trump, he revealed his secret pet name for her.

Joe Sommerlad writes:

A jubilant President Donald Trump inadvertently revealed his pet name for his wife Melania Trump during a speech to supporters in Iowa on Thursday, hours after Congress finally passed his “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

Delivering a “Salute to America” address in Des Moines on the eve of July 4, as the United States marks the 249th anniversary of its independence from Britain, Trump leapt from one topic to another and eventually settled on military recruitment.

“I remember saying to our great First Lady...” he began, before stopping to remark: “I call her ‘First Lady,’ isn’t it terrible?”

Read on...

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are attending the Washington D.C. fireworks show along the National Mall.

The couple watched in awe from the White House balcony.

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement about $45 billion over the next four years to spend on detaining undocumented immigrants.

The funding is more than the federal government spent on immigration detention during the previous three presidential administrations, combined, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council told Democracy Now! that the spending package, which contains about $170 billion in wider immigration and border funding, makes ICE “the single largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the nation.”

“We’re talking nearly 20 years’ worth of detention funding to be spent only in a four-year period, and an increase to ICE’s enforcement budget beyond anything we’ve ever seen before, allowing the agency to expand mass deportations over the next four years to every community nationwide,” he said.

Read more from Josh Marcus:

President Donald Trump signed his tax and spending bill into law Friday evening as millions of Americans celebrated Independence Day.

Former President Joe Biden told Americans in an Independence Day message earlier Thursday, “Today is about freedom.”

“We’re the United States of America, and nothing like it exists in the world. As we celebrate our nation’s independence, we must also remember that democracy is never guaranteed—every generation must fight to maintain it,” he wrote.

President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" has passed and is causing panic for the heads of America's top universities.

The bill levies a tiered tax on university endowments, which previously were not taxable. The new tax is justified by the Trump administration as a way to prevent universities from "[abusing] generous benefits provided through the tax code".

The taxes range from 1.4 percent to 8 percent at the wealthiest institutions.

Universities rely on their endowments to fund essential operations and to provide services to their students.

Read more from Graig Graziosi:

Prominent conservative Charlie Kirk celebrated America after President Donald Trump signed his tax and spending bill Friday evening.

“A year ago today our country was suffocating under [former President Joe] Biden. Today, Trump signs the most transformative piece of legislation in the modern era. America is back. Praise the Lord,” Kirk wrote on X.

In a follow-up post, Kirk said, “America is the greatest country in the history of the world.”

The bromance between House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was on after they helped pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” Thursday.

“Proud of this leadership team! Blessed to work every day with my fellow Louisianan @SpeakerJohnson!” Scalise wrote on X Thursday night.

Johnson responded by writing, “Grateful and blessed to work with you every day, my brother.”