President Donald Trump threw a huge wrench into Republicans’ celebration of the passage of a key piece of legislation on Wednesday by abruptly canceling the bill signing.
“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.
The move blindsided Republicans, who have been desperate for legislative victories to tout on the campaign trail as they inch closer to the midterms in November.
The president was set to sign the bill with Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson at noon on Capitol Hill.
Thune offered a muted reaction when informed of the president’s abrupt cancellation.
“I just heard that,” he said, according to Punchbowl News. “I guess I would say, at this point, I don’t have any observations about that.”
Republicans, who were in the middle of a news conference touting the housing bill and Trump’s support of it when he made his bombshell Truth Social post, were left stunned by the move.
A senior aide to a Republican senator told Punchbowl that it is as if Trump is trying to lose his Senate and House majorities in November.
“We saw glimpses of this during Trump’s first administration, but never in my lifetime have I seen a president so deliberately attempt to lose majorities for his own party,” the aide said.
Trump has no leverage over Congress when it comes to the housing bill. It goes into effect as law after 10 days if the president does not act on it. Even if he vetoes it, the legislation has a veto proof majority, but Republicans would have to have the courage to act.
For months, Trump has pressed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would overhaul elections in all 50 states and add new proof-of-citizenship and voter-ID requirements.
However, Republicans have been hesitant to advance the legislation, which GOP leadership says lacks even a majority of votes, never mind the necessary 60 votes it needs in the Senate.
The housing bill that Trump is holding up was passed by the House and Senate this week with bipartisan support—something Trump seemed bothered by in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, in which he noted that his longtime Democratic foe, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, co-sponsored the legislation.
It aims to lower housing costs by making it easier to build more homes and by restricting large investors from buying up single-family residences.
The signing ceremony for the housing bill was planned as part of a lunch that Trump was set to have with Republican lawmakers.
A spokesperson for Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who invited Trump to the lunch, told NBC News that Trump will still travel to the Capitol on Wednesday and attend their weekly lunch.
