Trump Refuses to Sign Housing Bill to Force Action on SAVE America Act

The stage was (literally) set in the Capitol on Wednesday for Donald Trump to sign a bipartisan housing bill that was supposed to address one aspect of the affordability crisis plaguing Americans. And then the president threw one of his famous tantrums.

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote in a social media post that refers to the GOP’s voter suppression legislation that is the president’s top legislative priority.

The move is his latest attempt to force Senate Republicans to pass a bill that he believes will give the GOP a much-needed edge in the upcoming midterms.

In a nutshell, the SAVE America Act addresses a problem that doesn’t exist (i.e., a noteworthy number of noncitizens voting in US elections) by applying a “remedy” that will disenfranchise countless eligible voters. And, based on the GOP’s track record, that is a feature of the bill and not a bug.

Specifically, the legislation would require Americans who wish to register to vote to present the kind of photo ID that millions of them don’t have, e.g., a birth certificate with a name that matches the one on their current ID, a passport, or a REAL ID.

Not coincidentally, the demographic groups that are among the most likely to lack access to these documents, e.g., minorities and married women, tend to vote for Democrats.

In other words, while Republicans claim that the legislation ensures that only Americans vote, the SAVE America Act actually makes it harder for them to do so… all while ignoring that there are already laws on the books that impose draconian punishments on any noncitizen who tries to cast a ballot.

These laws are so effective that cases of in-person voter fraud are rarer than people getting killed by hippos.

In addition, there are far more effective ways of achieving the same goal, for example, by automatically registering natural-born citizens to vote on their 18th birthday or immigrants on the day of their naturalization ceremony.

However, Republicans don’t want all Americans to vote; they just want the “right” Americans to vote, which brings us back to Trump’s attempted power play.

We say “attempted” because it is likely just a stunt.

The housing bill passed with such overwhelming support that, even if he were to veto the legislation, Congress has the votes to override him. And if Trump does nothing, the measure will automatically become law within ten days (excluding Sundays) from the time it was presented to the White House as long as Congress stays in session.

What the president did manage (once again), however, is to step on the GOP’s message. His demands that Republican senators “terminate the filibuster” to pass the SAVE America Act will not be met. There simply is not enough support for such a drastic step.

All that is being accomplished by Trump continuing to bring this up – and GOP firebrands in both chambers stoking dissension within their own ranks – is that the president’s MAGA base will be increasingly upset with Senate Republicans. This, in turn, will make it less likely for them to support these senators in a midterm election that is going to hinge on which party will be able to turn out its voters.

In other words, if Trump wants Republicans to lose in the fall, then this was another stroke of genius.