What Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Really Means

Let’s be honest: the “One Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t beautiful at all. It’s dangerous. It’s a massive attack on our rights, our environment, and our ability to live with dignity—no matter how they try to sell it to us, we all know it’s bad.

This is the kind of policy that sounds good on cable news, but when you look closely, it’s a disaster for people and the planet. So let’s break it down, plain and simple.

What Is It?

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (yes, that’s really what it’s called) is a sweeping package of tax cuts, spending shifts, and policy changes that would:

Cut taxes for the rich by over $1.5 trillion over 10 years¹, with nearly half of the benefits flowing to the top 1%².
Slash social services like Medicaid and food assistance—proposing $2 trillion in cuts over the decade³, including:
- $900 billion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act³
- $200 billion from SNAP (food stamps)³
- $25 billion from Supplemental Security Income for disabled people³
Give more money to ICE and the military—$800 billion in new military spending⁴, and $25 billion for expanded ICE operations, border walls, and detention centers⁵.
Roll back climate protections and expand fossil fuels—$100 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for oil, gas, and coal companies⁶.
Criminalize poverty and deepen surveillance of immigrants.

It’s one big gift to billionaires and fossil fuel CEOs—and one big punishment for everyone else.

How Does It Hurt People?

More people will lose healthcare. The bill adds new “work requirements” to Medicaid, meaning if you’re not working enough hours (or can’t prove you are), you could lose your coverage. Up to 10 million people⁷—many of them women, disabled folks, and people of color—could be pushed out of the system.
Food assistance is being cut. Adults aged 55 to 64 would lose access to SNAP (food stamps) if they don’t meet new restrictions. This hits low-income people who are already struggling—especially elders.
Family separation and deportation will increase. The bill pours $25 billion into ICE, deportation forces, and border militarization⁵. It turns migration into a crime, rather than a response to global injustice, climate collapse, or colonial borders.
Electricity costs will go up. By rolling back clean energy incentives and increasing reliance on fossil fuels, the bill is projected to raise electricity prices for U.S. households by up to 15% over the next decade⁸. This especially burdens low-income families and seniors living on fixed incomes.

What About the Climate?

This bill is a disaster for the planet:

It cuts support for solar, wind, EVs, and home energy upgrades—slashing $80 billion in incentives⁹ over the decade.
It opens up public lands for more oil and gas drilling—projected to generate $100 billion in giveaways and lease sales to fossil fuel companies⁶.
It silences climate monitoring—especially in schools and marginalized communities.

It’s not just a step backwards. It’s a full sprint toward climate collapse.

Who Wins? Who Loses?

Winners:

Oil companies, who will receive $100 billion in new subsidies and tax breaks⁶
Weapons manufacturers and defense contractors
Landlords and billionaires, reaping hundreds of billions in tax cuts¹
Private healthcare and prison contractors benefiting from societal pain

Losers:

Working families, who will see $2 trillion in cuts to basic services³
Climate organizers
Disabled folks, elders, undocumented communities
The Global South
The Earth itself

The Bigger Picture

This bill is not about economics. It’s about power. It’s about reshaping the country so that rich people have fewer obligations and more control—while everyone else has fewer rights and more surveillance.

It’s designed to distract, divide, and destroy.

And let’s be clear: this is part of a global pattern. From Gaza to the U.S.-Mexico border, from Lebanon to Louisiana, we are watching the violent expansion of authoritarian policies masked as “law and order” or “economic growth.” These are tools of white supremacy and colonial capitalism. And they are killing us.

What Can We Do?

This is a fight we can win—but only if we organize, locally and globally. Here’s how:

Educate your community. Break down this bill in simple terms. Talk about who benefits and who suffers. Share this piece. Host teach-ins.
Pressure lawmakers. Call your reps. Tell them to reject this bill and any cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, climate protections, or immigrant rights.
Build alternatives. Support mutual aid, public power campaigns, climate justice organizations, and local cooperatives. Design what could be.
Tell the story. The people in power want us to believe this is normal. It’s not. Speak truth. Use your platform. Name what’s happening. Center care, not capital.

This bill is a blueprint for an empire in decline. But we don’t have to go down with it. We can write a different story—one rooted in solidarity, in justice, and in collective imagination.

This is not the end. This is a beginning. If we want a future, we’ll have to design it together.

Tax Policy Center, Distributional Analysis of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2017–2027 (link) ↩ ↩²
Congressional Budget Office, The Distribution of Major Tax Provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2018 (link) ↩
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Trump’s Budget Cuts Would Cause Severe Hardship for Millions, 2020 (link) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Congressional Budget Office, Analysis of the 2020 Defense Budget, 2019 (link) ↩
Migration Policy Institute, Funding for Immigration Enforcement and Border Security, 2018–2020 (link) ↩ ↩²
Friends of the Earth & Oil Change International, Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Trump’s Budget, 2019 (link) ↩ ↩² ↩³
Kaiser Family Foundation, Estimated Medicaid Coverage Losses Under Work Requirements, 2019 (link) ↩
Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC, Analysis of Proposed Rollback of Clean Energy Incentives and Consumer Energy Costs, 2020 (link) ↩
Congressional Research Service, Energy Tax Policy and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2019 (link) ↩