President Donald Trump has promised an elaborate Independence Day signing ceremony for the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” recently approved by Congress.

The president teased plans for the ceremony while speaking to reporters on Thursday. Trump said that the ceremony would feature a number of United States military warplanes, including the B-2, F-22, and F-35.

Trump said the ceremony would start around 5 p.m. ET, and he would be joined by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), and most Republicans in Congress.

“At about 5:00 o’clock, we’re going to have B-2s and F-22s and F-35s flying right over the White House,” Trump said. “It’s going to be a great day, so we’ll be signing with those beautiful planes flying right over our heads.”

.@POTUS on tomorrow's One Big Beautiful Bill signing: "We're signing at about 5:00p — and at about 5:00p, we're going to have B-2s and F-22s and F-35s flying right over the White House … so we'll be signing with those beautiful planes flying right over our heads." 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/40CjzwfvF9

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 3, 2025

The House gave final approval on Thursday to send the “Big, Beautiful Bill” to Trump’s desk in time for his July 4 deadline. Johnson and Trump whipped votes and met with holdouts in the hours leading up to the vote, securing a 218-214 majority to pass the legislation on Thursday afternoon.

“I think when you go over the bill, it was very easy to get them to a ‘Yes,’” Trump told reporters on Thursday after the bill’s passage. “You know, we went over that bill point after point: biggest tax cut in history, great for security, great on the southern border, immigration is covered – we covered just about everything. Again, it’s the biggest bill ever signed of its kind.”

.@POTUS: "I think when you go over the bill, it was very easy to get them to a 'Yes.' … Biggest tax cut in history, great for security, great on the southern border … we covered just about everything. Again, it's the biggest bill ever signed of its kind." pic.twitter.com/0nfeQ5IDuo

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 3, 2025

Johnson secured the votes to pass the massive package at around 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) then held the House floor for over eight hours, speaking to delay the bill’s passage, but ultimately powerless to stop it.

“With one big, beautiful bill, we are going to make this country stronger, safer, and more prosperous than ever before. And every American is going to benefit from this,” Johnson said just before the vote. “Today we are laying a key cornerstone of America’s new Golden Age.”

The bill’s passage is just the latest landmark victory for the president that has seen a cascade of wins in recent weeks. Just under two weeks ago, Trump greenlit a bomb and missile strike targeting Iranian nuclear facilities that “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan.

New York City’s Democratic Mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani does not consider himself to be black — but that did not stop him from checking the “African-American” box in addition to the “Asian” box on his application to attend Columbia University.

The New York Times revealed the information — discovered through a hack of the university and then shared with the outlet — in a report published on Thursday afternoon, just ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend.

GIFT LINK:
SCOOP: Mamdani Identified as Asian and African American on College Application

I report with @DanaRubinstein and @NPFandos for @NYTimeshttps://t.co/pV7xvNYprB

— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) July 3, 2025

Though both of his parents are of Indian descent, Mamdani was born in Uganda and spent his early childhood there. He has said that he considers himself “an American who was born in Africa,” not black or African American — and instead, he has leaned in to his South Asian ancestry and his Muslim faith.

“As the first South Asian elected official, the first Muslim elected official to ever run for mayor, the turnout in those same communities has been incredible to see,” he said after besting disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the primary.

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But, as the hacked data revealed, he did consider himself African American for the purpose of his application to Columbia — and he admitted he’d done the same on other college applications. His explanation was that the available selections did not paint a complete picture of who he was.

“Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,” he said. “Even though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was.”

The Times even appeared to cast doubt on Mamdani’s motivation:

Columbia, like many elite universities, used a race-conscious affirmative action admissions program at the time. Reporting that his race was Black or African American in addition to Asian could have given an advantage to Mr. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and spent his earliest years there.

In addition, the Times pressed Mamdani on whether he’d ever identified as African American on any other occasion: “The Times could not find any speeches or interviews in which Mr. Mamdani referred to himself as Black or African American.” Mamdani said that outside of college applications, he could not recall ever doing so.