What’s Really in the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’? Sorting Through the Myths
By Nicole Dirks, Chiara Vercellone, and Sam Howard
What happened: As Congress continues to debate Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” social media users across the political spectrum are spreading falsehoods about the massive budget and policy measure. NewsGuard so far has identified seven provably false claims related to the budget bill.
Context: The “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed the House on a 215-214 vote on May 22 and cleared the Senate on July 1 on a 51-50 vote. It is now back in the House, which could approve the Senate version or make changes, in which case it would go back to the Senate.
A closer look: Conservative social media users have praised the bill as beneficial to the middle class by citing provisions that do not exist. Liberals, meanwhile, are fabricating provisions and presenting them as a threat to democracy. And pro-Kremlin accounts have joined the fray by stoking conservatives with an anti-Ukraine myth of their own.
Medicaid misinfo: Conservative accounts are falsely claiming that the bill does not contain any Medicaid cuts and that it would prevent 1.4 million undocumented immigrants from receiving Medicaid benefits.
Trump himself said on May 20: “The only thing we’re cutting is waste, fraud and abuse. … We’re not changing Medicaid.”
Conservative news site Breitbart (Trust Score: 49.5/100) said in a May 15 article, “House Republicans are moving to block an estimated 1.4 million illegal aliens from receiving American taxpayer-funded Medicaid as Democrats struggle to message their support for the unpopular position.”
Actually: The budget bills approved by the House and Senate both include cuts to Medicaid and would lead to an estimated 17 million people losing their health insurance over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The bill would cut Medicaid primarily by imposing a work requirement on Medicaid recipients.
Undocumented immigrants are already ineligible for federally funded Medicaid. This claim is based on a misrepresentation of an estimate of how the bill would affect state-funded programs, for which migrants are eligible. (Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s False Claim Fingerprint for this claim here.)
Fake election changes: Liberal critics of the bill claim that it includes a provision giving Trump the ability to delay or cancel elections, thus putting democracy at risk.
Liberal X user @Mollyploofkins posted, “Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ is the most dangerous legislation in U.S. history.” The post included a screenshot that stated, “He can delay or cancel elections—legally.” The post garnered 856,100 views and 11,000 likes.
Actually: NewsGuard reviewed the House and Senate versions of the legislation and found no such provision, or any provision that would change the federal law governing the timing of elections.
Aiding and abetting: Some pro-Russia news sites are falsely claiming that the bill allocates $60 billion in aid to Ukraine.
GlobalResearch.ca (Trust Score: 17.5/100), a Canadian website that publishes pro-Kremlin content, posted an article titled: “The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’: Another 60 Billion for Ukraine. Senator Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal in Violation of The Logan Act.”
Actually: The legislation does not include any provisions committing U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine, or to any country, a NewsGuard review of the document found. The measure is a domestic policy blueprint addressing U.S. spending on health care, immigration, taxes, and more.
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