WASHINGTON (AP) By MARY CLARE JALONICK, JOSH BOAK and LISA MASCARO — President Donald Trump abruptly called off a planned signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing bill ahead of a meeting with Senate Republicans in the Capitol on Wednesday, making clear that he’s in no mood to compromise as he pressures them to pass his voting legislation.
Republicans had been hoping to use the housing bill, which aims to lower costs and increase supply, as a selling point to voters ahead of critical November midterm elections. And GOP senators were eager for a conciliatory luncheon with the president after escalating tensions in recent weeks. But the president upended their plans when he declared on social media that he won’t sign the legislation until they send him his bill to require proof of citizenship for all voters.
“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 posted.
Trump has pressed Republicans for months to kill the Senate filibuster and focus on his proof-of-citizenship voting bill even though Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has repeatedly told him that neither has the votes to pass. The bill would require proof of citizenship for all voters and force states to require voter identification.
Asked about Trump’s post on the housing bill, Thune told reporters, “that was his call to make.”
“What I would say is that the bill is a bill that has been worked on for a long time,” Thune said. “It’s a great piece of legislation that increases the supply of housing and the availability of credit for people to afford homes. So it’s an affordability issue and eventually I hope he finds a way to sign it.”
The White House did not immediately respond when asked whether Trump would veto the housing bill. But his apparent reversal on the measure that Republicans have touted ahead of the election is likely to only aggravate the deepening split between the president and his Republican majorities on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s post seemed to catch nearly everyone by surprise. It arrived as House Republican leaders were holding their weekly press conference at party headquarters and celebrating the passage of the bipartisan housing measure. Back at the Capitol, a podium and desk bearing the presidential seal had been set up in Statuary Hall, with around a dozen flags flanking the stage.
At the news conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he had spoken to the president for about 20 minutes earlier Wednesday and expected the housing bill would still be signed.
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