A year later, Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act looks really ugly | Opinion
Last July, President Donald Trump signed into law the signature legislation of his second term – the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – a budget package loaded with lasting tax breaks for the wealthy and short-term benefits for working people.
Trump, who takes credit for inspiring the name of the legislation and helped push it through Congress, was ebullient at a July 4, 2025, signing ceremony, sounding so certain that the legislation would benefit Republicans in Congress who supported it and haunt Democrats who did not.
"This is a triumph of democracy on the birthday of democracy," Trump said a year ago. "And I have to say that the people are happy. They're happy."
It's a year later, and a couple of things are now clear. The people are not happy. And the Democrats are haunting the Republicans, who maybe now find the One Big Beautiful Bill Act not so attractive on the election campaign trail.
Americans are not impressed with the GOP's ugly legislation
Public opinion polling shows the economy, which was Trump's strongest issue during his 2024 campaign, is now his greatest weakness. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was supposed to signal Trump's economic turnaround.
Instead, a Harris Poll, reported by The Guardian on July 7, found that 57% of Americans think the economy is getting worse, up from 46% in February. A YouGov poll in June found a record 63% of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy. An average of surveys compiled by RealClear Polling shows 58.9% of Americans think our country is headed in the wrong direction.
November's midterm elections, with control of Congress at stake, are now less than four months away. And Democrats, who are leading Republicans in generic ballot polling for congressional races, have made the One Big Beautiful Bill Act central to their messaging in those races.
A Washington Post analysis published on July 6 found that congressional Democrats mention the One Big Beautiful Bill Act twice as often in public statements and social media posts as their Republican colleagues.
That disparity in messaging wouldn't be happening if Trump and his Republican allies in Congress were winning the war of words about the president's signature legislation.
But Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act is built on disparity – benefits that expire for working people but never for the wealthy.
Republicans did create a beautiful bill – for the wealthy
Trump in August 2025 told his Cabinet he was dropping the name One Big Beautiful Bill Act because it wasn't playing well with voters.
And he made Vice President JD Vance the face of a rebranding campaign, which quickly flopped.
When Trump signed the law, his White House media team put the name One Big Beautiful Bill in the headline for the news release. A year later, the same team switched to the rebranded name – Working Families Tax Cuts – in a news release headline.
That's a bit of political misdirection that never caught on. Trump and Vance have tried to pitch the legislation as a big win for working Americans. The part they leave out: It's a much sweeter deal for America's wealthiest people, who get a permanent extension of tax cuts Trump enacted in his first term.
That's why you hear Trump and Vance talk about not taxing tips (up to $25,000 per year) or overtime pay ($12,500 per year). But those working-class tax breaks expire in less than two and a half years, at the end of 2028.
The tax breaks for wealthier Americans, first passed in 2017, that were set to expire last year, are now permanent.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in August projected that the wealthiest 10% of Americans will see a bottom-line benefit of about $13,600 a year, while budget cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would see Americans at the other end of the economic spectrum take a hit of about $1,200 annually.
Democrats are eager to talk to voters about that. As Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, in a July 2 news release to preview the first anniversary of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, put it, "One year later, Trump and Republicans are coming face to face with reality: Their billionaire-first legislation ripped healthcare away from millions of Americans, slashed food assistance, and gave the largest tax break handouts to billionaires and big corporations in history."
That helps explain why Trump is suddenly trying to brand every Democrat seeking a seat in Congress as a "godless communist." He's flailing in front of us because he promised an economic revival and delivered a mess instead.
And, as the general election on Nov. 3 gets closer and closer, the bill for that will come due for Trump's Republican allies in Congress.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A year later, Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act looks really ugly | Opinion
Reporting by Chris Brennan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 5:07 AM.