Donald Trump threatened not to sign any bills until Congress passes the Save America Act, a restriction on voting access.
The president, obsessed with baseless claims that non-citizens are stealing U.S. elections ahead of midterm elections that are expected to be painful for Republicans, said on Social Truth Sunday that the Save America Act “must be passed immediately” and “replaces everything else.”
“YOU MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as president, will not sign other bills until this one passes, AND NOT THE RELEASED VERSION: GO FOR THE GOLD,” he wrote.
He laid out a list of what he wanted in the bill, much of which is not currently in the proposal: showing voter ID and proof of citizenship, banning voting by mail except in a few cases, and, unrelated to voting, a ban on transgender people participating in women’s sports and gender-affirming surgeries for minors.
The White House previously confirmed that Trump was pushing for measures to be added to the voting bill on trans issues. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that Trump “added some priorities” to the bill, including a ban on “transgender transition surgeries for minors.”
“We will not tolerate the mutilation of young children in this country. There are no men in women’s sports,” she said. “For the president to put all of these priorities together speaks to how common sense they are.”
The Save America Act is a new name for the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, or Save Act, a bill that has been circulating in Congress in some version for more than two years.
The US House of Representatives passed the bill earlier this year, but it faces major difficulties in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to advance due to the filibuster rule. Republican senators will face intense pressure to lift the filibuster and advance the bill. Ken Paxton, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Texas who faces a heated runoff with John Cornyn, already said he would consider dropping out of his race if Senate leaders agreed to lift the filibuster against the Save America Act, though it’s unclear how his dropping out relates to the bill’s machinations in Congress.
In the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections, Trump has suggested that the US government should federalize elections, which are run by state and local jurisdictions of all political backgrounds across the country. An executive order he issued that attempted to enact many of the provisions of the Save Act has been largely blocked by the courts. In early February, he suggested that Republicans should “take over” and “nationalize” elections in 15 states to protect the party from being ousted.
Among the provisions of the Save Act: the requirement to provide documented proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote (such as a passport or birth certificate); a voter identification requirement to cast a vote; a prohibition on states from registering people to vote unless they provide such documentation at the time of registration; requirements for states to ensure that only U.S. citizens register; a subsidy for private parties to sue election officials if someone registers to vote without presenting documentary proof of citizenship, as well as possible criminal sanctions.
The bill also directs states to submit voter lists to the Department of Homeland Security for citizenship verification. The Justice Department has sought access to voter rolls in many states, even filing lawsuits in some.
Voting rights advocates have said the bill would effectively prevent millions of Americans from voting: Only about half of people have a valid U.S. passport and other documents, such as birth certificates, may not match people’s names. They have drawn attention to the impacts on married women who changed their names whose documents may not be updated, saying the law could cause additional obstacles to voting for them.
“The SAVE Act would disenfranchise Americans of all ages and races, but younger voters and voters of color would suffer disproportionately,” the Brennan Center for Justice wrote in February.
It would also make voter registration burdensome and hamper voter registration drives, which often use mail-in forms. To sign up to receive mail-in ballots, people would still have to present proof of citizenship in person.
Some states have passed proof of citizenship laws for their elections, although they look different in each state. The Save Act would replace those requirements for federal elections.
Non-citizen voting is incredibly rare, but it has remained a favorite issue for Republicans and Trump for years. In many cases, when states have attempted to find large numbers of noncitizens on their voter rolls, they have instead trapped eligible voters, including naturalized citizens.
The Bipartisan Policy Center said there is “no evidence that attempts to vote by noncitizens have been significant enough to affect the outcome of any election.” He noted a recent example from Utah, where the state reviewed its voter registration list and found a case where a noncitizen registered to vote and none of the noncitizens voted.
