Exclusive: Thune plans make-or-break weekend votes on "big, beautiful bill"

Senate Majority Leader John Thune expects to start voting Friday on President Trump's "one big, beautiful bill," he told Axios in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

Why it matters: This would have them voting into the weekend, and it would upend the House's recess next week. But Thune (R-S.D.) is confident Congress will meet its self-imposed July 4 deadline to get a bill on Trump's desk. 

“No one goes on vacation until it’s done” - The BOSS. pic.twitter.com/QKl9Hz9T3e

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) June 24, 2025

Driving the news: Thune huddled with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) around midday on Tuesday. 

• Minutes before that meeting, Thune told Axios he hadn't chatted with Johnson recently about the bill, saying "we've kind of had our noses to the grindstone." 
• House leadership has reportedly told people they are worried about being able to pass the Senate's version of the bill. Changes to the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction and Medicaid provider taxes are the biggest concerns.
• On SALT, Thune said he "knew that would be the last issue to get resolved, which it will be."

Zoom in: Thune said Friday was looking more likely for an initial vote than Thursday, setting up the potential for a weekend slog.

• "I think we get on it, and then we will plow through, and we'll get into vote-a-rama and grind it out until — until whenever," the leader said.
• "It's just the nature of the beast at the end."
• Johnson told House Republicans "not to leave town" this weekend in case the Senate gets a bill passed, Politico reported Tuesday. 

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Zoom out: Thune wouldn't say if he had 51 votes as of Tuesday. Senate and House Republicans continue to air concerns about the bill — from SALT to Medicaid to AI provisions. 

• Thune does not see it necessarily as a bad thing. "Right now, everybody's unhappy on both sides, which tells you we're probably close," Thune said.
• "Nobody wants to give up leverage until you have to finally vote on it," he added.

The bottom line: Thune said he's asked Trump to help win over senators.

• "He's been meeting with individual senators, been talking with him on the phone...and he's had them down in smaller groups," Thune said.
• "I feel pretty confident that come the end of the week, the sense of urgency around this that [Trump has] conveyed to a lot of our members is going to be the compelling force that gets on his desk."

Thune can dump her and appoint whomever.@LeaderJohnThune
You need to get the bill moving, and she's the stumbling block.
This needs to be done ASAP. https://t.co/a7egfakCv0

— Elizabeth Howe (@howe887) June 25, 2025

Exclusive: Thune vs. the polls on the "big, beautiful bill"

Senate Majority Leader John Thune admits Democrats "have done a good job out-demagoguing" President Trump's "big, beautiful bill," he told Axios in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Republicans know they are down at halftime, with the polls looking ugly on the overall package. But parts of it are very popular, and Thune (R-S.D.) thinks they can run up the score after the final bill is passed.

• "Congress doesn't do comprehensive well," Thune told Axios.
• Democratic arguments about "slashing Medicaid" or "letting billionaires have tax cuts" are just "the early arguments that people are hearing," Thune said.
• He called it hard to effectively talk about a bill this big.

🥵 Some Senate Republicans are feeling the heat: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned Tuesday that changes to Medicaid could earn the GOP a level of backlash that Democrats felt on Obamacare, Punchbowl News reported.

• But Thune thinks the GOP will be fine, once there is a final law to talk about. "You're going to be talking about all the individual components of this that are incredibly popular — and they are," he told Axios.

What to watch: Thune is betting most Americans do not have a good idea of what is in the bill. (To be fair, Congress is still figuring out the details.)

• He predicts specific measures — border or national security or energy or tax related — will surprise voters, in a good way.
• "People say, 'Oh, oh, I didn't realize that. I really like that. This is in there? I didn't know that.' And I think you're gonna hear a lot of that," he said.

Zoom in: Some of these potentially, popular details are still being worked on, with Trump feeling free to publicly weigh in.

• Trump said he hates the provisions that would more slowly roll back some of the energy tax credits, calling it a "SCAM" on Truth Social on Saturday.
• Thune said he talked to Trump about the concerns on Sunday. "He was really, really — This is something he feels passionate about," Thune said.
• "Our number and the House number will be very close," Thune said of the energy tax credit parts of the bill.

Zoom out: Thune is sticking to the July 4 deadline, even as House and Senate Republicans publicly fight over the details and pieces of the bill get struck down by Senate rules.

• "Absent deadlines, things drag," Thune said of his commitment to July 4.
• Thune is optimistic about pending decisions on whether the tax and Medicaid policies are allowed in the package, saying they had "pre-vetted" most of it with the parliamentarian and so were "80- 90% there."

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