The White House has been forced to do damage-control after President Donald Trump‘s brazen threat to Democrats misfired.
Trump declared on Sunday that he wouldn’t sign any bills until Congress passes the SAVE Act, which would make sweeping changes to how Americans vote.
“It supersedes everything else,” the 79-year-old president wrote on Truth Social. “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.”
However, he seems to have forgotten that Republicans are hoping to reach a deal with Democrats on a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
Democrats have refused to support funding for the agency without policy changes such as enhanced training and a ban on masks for immigration agents.
Republicans have sought to pressure Democrats to drop immigration reform and restore the agency’s funding, but Trump’s post threw into doubt whether he would even sign a bill to end the partial government shutdown.
On Monday, the White House stepped in to clarify that Trump’s sweeping threat wasn’t as all-encompassing as he made it seem.
“The President was referring to other bills, not DHS funding. If the Democrats do the right thing and pass funding for DHS, the President will, of course, fund the agency,” a White House spokesperson told USA TODAY.
However, Trump told NBC News last week that he’d even risk a full government shutdown to force the passage of the SAVE Act.
“I would close government over it,” said the president, who has already presided over the two longest government shutdowns in U.S. history. “To me, that’s a core belief,” he added.
Short for “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility,” the SAVE Act would mandate a photo ID to vote, require people to submit proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, and grant the Department of Homeland Security access to states’ voter rolls.
Trump and his allies have spent years attacking the legitimacy of U.S. elections and continue to push his long-debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Critics have warned that the bill could disenfranchise millions of U.S. citizens by creating hurdles to register and cast ballots.
The act has already cleared the House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate, but it’s unlikely to reach the chamber’s 60-vote threshold without any Democratic backing. GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune remains opposed to bypassing the filibuster, even with pressure from Trump.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
