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Tim Murtaugh to Newsmax: 'Senators Will Eventually Come Around' on Big, Beautiful Bill

By Nicole Weatherholtz | Friday, 23 May 2025 10:42 AM EDT

Now that President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" budget bill has made it out of the House, it heads to the Senate, where some lawmakers have already said they have serious problems with the legislation as it's currently written.

Tim Murtaugh, a Trump 2024 senior adviser, told Newsmax that some grumbling from senators is "to be expected," but, ultimately, he thinks they will "come around."

"I think you'll see senators trying to stake out their public relations ground as the bill comes to their chamber, but what this big, beautiful bill is about is keeping promises for President Trump," Murtaugh said Friday on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "As folks may recall, even those in the United States Senate, President Trump won the 2024 election fairly handily and so I think he's probably entitled to tell these guys, 'Look, I got to keep these promises.'"

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the House early Thursday in a 215-214-1 vote, "manages $1.6 trillion in cutting of spending" Murtaugh said, "continues the Trump tax cuts of 2017, which were so instrumental in spurring the economy to great heights back then," and "adds even more tax relief."

"Basically, if you pay taxes in America, your taxes are going to be cut under this bill," he said. "No taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime pay. It slashes taxes on Social Security."

Additionally, the legislative package "takes 1.4 million illegal aliens out of the Medicaid system" and "bans public funding of sex change operations through the Medicaid program.

"I'm sure taxpayers will be relieved to find out that they're no longer going to be paying for sex change operations for children, for illegal aliens, or for anyone else in the Medicaid system," Murtaugh said.

Later in the day on Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Senate leadership he cannot support "the big, beautiful bill" because it seeks to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion over two years.

Paul, one of the upper chamber's leading fiscal hawks, said he would consider voting for the package "if they'll take the debt ceiling off of it."

"We've never, ever voted to raise the debt ceiling this much," Paul told The Hill. "It'll be a historic increase. I think it's not good for conservatives to be on record supporting a $4 or $5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. If it's not conservative; I can't support it."

Murtaugh said the measure, which he described as "an America First bill," is "all about promises made, promises kept."

"This is really cementing the America First agenda in the federal budget spending plan," he said. "I think the senators will eventually come around and this bill will pass and go to the president's desk."

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