A frustrated President Donald Trump and his MAGA pit bull, House Speaker Mike Johnson, are struggling to wrangle rogue Republicans behind their election bill, the SAVE Act.
Johnson again sent lawmakers home early, before the Fourth of July holiday, after a failed vote on the must-pass annual National Defense Authorization Act.
More than a dozen House Republicans voted with Democrats 224 to 198 Tuesday, June 30, to block a procedural vote on the more than $1 trillion NDAA amid attempts to combine it with the controversial voter restriction bill, essentially stalling the also-controversial defense spending bill and setting no clear timetable for a vote.
The NDAA is considered “must-pass” legislation because it authorizes military operations. It establishes defense policies and sets spending limits for the Department of Defense. Without it, the U.S. military cannot legally enact critical operations, procure weapons, or adjust troop levels, according to Congress.gov.
“It makes no sense for us to stop our very important progress forward from House Republicans, because some Senate Democrats are refusing to do their job,” an angry Johnson told reporters Tuesday after the failed vote, according to The Hill.
Trump’s SAVE Act would make sweeping changes to how Americans vote, requiring proof of citizenship to register and an ID to cast a ballot. The bill has already passed the House three times, Axios reported, but there is not enough Democratic support to get it through the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, under intense pressure from Trump, needs 60 votes to pass it, but at least four Republicans are against it, meaning he would need to scuttle the filibuster, something he doesn’t want to do and with good reason.
Republicans control the entire federal government, with majorities in both the House and Senate and a Republican president.
If Congress reverts to Democratic control, which could happen in the upcoming midterms, it could easily pass any measure with a simple majority rather than the 60-vote threshold currently required.
Social media had a field day making fun of the president and his MAGA acolytes.
“Not a good day for Trump/Republicans at all,” an X user quipped, including three laughing emojis in his post.
“Lol the Democrats are winning so hard, and they don’t even have a majority. It’s comical. I say this as a hard right guy. Conservatism is dead,” another chimed in.
This X user piled on, “Poor Dumb Donny isn’t going to be happy about this.”
And another said, “The non-insane ones are starting to see that Trump’s hold on the party is crumbling.”
Trump has been ranting and raving about the Senate’s failure to pass the election suppression measure for months now, but his troubles don’t end with the SAVE Act.
The Supreme Court gave him another reason to continue his raging, rejecting the president’s attempts to end birthright citizenship in a long-anticipated ruling released Tuesday, June 30.
The justices ruled 6-3 in the historic Trump v. Barbara decision to uphold the 14th Amendment, which holds that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The high court also struck down Trump’s executive order ending automatic citizenship for children born in the country to undocumented migrants or to parents on temporary visas.
Trump first thanked the court on his Truth Social platform for its decision in the Slaughter case Monday, June 29, handing the president even more power in allowing him to fire at-will government employees working for independent federal agencies
“It is an Honor to be the sitting President who, after all these years, WON this very important, and hard fought, Case. We had other good Victories, too, and we also had the Birthright Citizenship loss, which we will work to correct in Congress,” a benign Trump bragged.
But 45 minutes later, a furious and passive-aggressive Trump took to his Truth Social platform to condemn the birthright ruling.
“I would like to congratulate President Xi, and the Great Country of China, on their massive Birthright Citizenship WIN!” Trump fumed.
