Donald Trump has resorted to making completely unfounded claims about the SAVE Act as he tries to get it passed through Congress.
In a late-night Truth Social post, the president claimed the bill, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and largely scrap mail-in ballots in elections, “is by far the most popular bill of its kind ever put before Congress!”
The biggest hurdle preventing the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility” bill from clearing the Senate is that it lacks bipartisan support and is guaranteed not to secure the support of at least seven Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber.
Trump has made a number of late-night Truth Social posts promoting the bill in an effort to push it through the Senate. Critics of the SAVE Act have raised concerns that the president hopes to use the legislation as a pretext to meddle in the midterm elections in November, when Republicans are widely expected to suffer an electoral wipeout.
In another late-night post, Trump lashed out at those who refer to the bill by its shortened name, suggesting that doing so diminishes its significance.
“It’s not the Save Act, it’s The Save America Act! A MUCH better, and more important, name!!!” the president wrote Sunday.
The increasingly petulant 79-year-old has also threatened not to sign any other legislation into law unless the SAVE Act passes in its current form.
“It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION,” Trump wrote. “GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY - ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL: NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS: NO TRANSGENDER MUTILIZATION [sic] FOR CHILDREN! DO NOT FAIL!!!”
In further signs of the president’s desperation, Trump has urged the filibuster be scrapped so the SAVE Act would require only a simple majority in the Senate rather than the support of at least 60 senators.
He has also floated the idea of forcing Democrats to try and block the legislation through marathon speeches on the Senate floor known as a “talking filibuster.”
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune bluntly rejected both of Trump’s suggestions, noting there is little appetite among senators to eliminate the filibuster and that forcing Democrats into a talking filibuster to wear down their opposition would not necessarily help the bill pass.
“The votes aren’t there, one, to nuke the filibuster, and the votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster,” Thune said. “It’s just a reality.”
“I’m the person who has to deliver, sometimes, the not-so-good news that the math doesn’t add up, but those are the facts and there’s no getting around it.”
