Trump slips on affordability message amid battle in GOP over SAVE America Act

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President Trump’s intense focus on passing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act is threatening to put Republicans at risk ahead of the midterm elections as the party finds itself on uneven footing with voters on affordability.

Trump sent shockwaves through Washington earlier this week when he canceled what would have been the highly publicized signing of a bipartisan housing bill addressing home affordability, saying he would not sign the legislation unless the SAVE America Act is passed.

The president has also made a habit of calling on Republicans to pass the legislation during public appearances and in numerous Truth Social posts, calling on Senate Republicans to abolish the filibuster in an effort to pass the legislation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has repeatedly maintained Republicans in the chamber do not have the votes to scrap the procedural tactic.

Trump recently called on Republicans to pass the legislation on Friday, speaking to Christian conservatives at the annual Faith & Freedom Coalition policy conference in Washington.

“Hard to believe that we even have to fight for this,” Trump said. “Fighting the Democrats and a few Republicans who are doing a tremendous disservice to this country,” he continued, name-checking Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska).

“You should call her and tell her to get on the ball. She’ll never win another election, I can tell you,” he said, pressuring the senator to support the bill.

Murkowski hit Trump over his insistence on passing the legislation in comments to reporters on Wednesday after Trump’s heated lunch meeting with Republican senators on Capitol Hill.

“If he chooses to hold up his own agenda because he wants action on the SAVE Act, that’s, I guess, his call. It is not helpful to him,” the senator said.

The SAVE America Act would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and present a photo ID to cast a ballot.

The legislation has passed the House, but Democrats have blocked its passage in the Senate. A group of hard-line House Republicans sought to oppose any procedural rule votes in an effort to block debate and a final vote on measures, until the SAVE America Act passes through Congress.

After a meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at the White House on Thursday, Trump urged Republicans in the lower chamber to stop “grandstanding” on the issue.

“Giving power to the Radical Left Dumocrats in the House to control what goes up for a Vote will make our outcomes worse, not better,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Democrats have come out united against the legislation, arguing it amounts to voter suppression because it provides roadblocks for citizens who may not have simple access to certain documents.

But polling on the SAVE America Act has shown voters have mixed views on the legislation.

According to a Politico poll conducted in April, 37 percent of voters said they supported the bill when asked about it by name and provided with no background on it. Twenty-one percent said they opposed it, while 42 percent said they neither supported nor opposed it.

Fifty-two percent of voters said they support requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, according to the same poll. Another 18 percent said they opposed requiring citizenship to vote, while 17 percent said they did not support or oppose the requirement. Thirteen percent said they did not know.

A separate poll conducted in March from Navigator Research found that 50 percent of voters initially said they supported the bill, while 39 percent said they opposed it. However, after reading messaging against the bill, support dropped to 45 percent and opposition rose to 47 percent.

Affordability, on the other hand, has emerged as the marquee issue for voters struggling with rising costs going into the midterms

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in a CNN interview Friday accused Trump of throwing a temper tantrum rather than deal with the affordability crisis.

“He wants to try to jam his voter suppression legislation down the throats of the American people,” Jeffries said. “We of course will continue to reject that effort but at the same time come together around common sense bills like this affordability bill connected to the housing crisis to try to improve the lives of the American people.”

Johnson said Thursday he plans to send the housing bill to Trump, which will leave the president with 10 days to sign the legislation. According to the Constitution, a bill becomes law after 10 days if a president does not sign it.

Republicans dismiss the idea that Trump’s focus on the SAVE America Act will overshadow the administration and party’s efforts to address affordability ahead of November.

“The President knows how critical this issue is for the American people and he will not stop fighting until it is passed,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson.

“But he can walk and chew gum at the same time. As a result, the Trump Administration continues to deliver on the President’s affordability agenda by lowering drug prices, reshoring American jobs, lowering gas prices and more,” she said.

One national GOP operative argued the bill, if passed, will give Republicans more ammunition on the campaign trail.

“If it gets passed and if it gets signed into law, it’s yet another tool in our toolbox that we can pull out on the campaign trail and say ‘hey, look what we’ve done,'” they said.

Other Republicans note that election security, particularly voter ID, is an activating issue for the Republican base.

“Trump is absolutely indefatigable on pushing all the buttons possible to get the SAVE [America] Act passed and it makes perfect political sense: when you poll the Republican voters we most need to turnout in the elections this year, they routinely place election security as their top issue,” said Gregg Kellar, a Republican strategist.

“His focus on it also forces Democrats to publicly oppose voter ID, which is popular with a huge swath of political independents,” he continued.

But Democrats argue this comes down to grievances for Trump and creating a postmidterm narrative.

“He still believes 2020, or at least he’s convinced himself that 2020 was a rigged election against all evidence,” said Democratic strategist Dan Kanninen, who was the battleground states director for campaigns for former President Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

“But I think the more dangerous part is the pretext that he is trying to set,” he continued. “He’s trying to create a narrative against all of that to suggest that any result that doesn’t favor Republicans is somehow invalid.”

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Hakeem Jeffries

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Lisa Murkowski

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