Trump wants Republicans to cheat to guarantee success in November’s midterm elections

President Donald Trump told Republican lawmakers that they must enact sweeping new voting restrictions to guarantee the party’s success in November’s midterm elections, threatening to refuse to sign any legislation until Congress delivers what voting rights advocates call the most restrictive election bill in a generation.

Speaking to House Republicans gathered at his Doral golf club, Trump made clear that passing the SAVE America Act — legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register and strict photo identification to vote — must take precedence over all other government business, including funding the Department of Homeland Security and addressing rising energy costs from the ongoing conflict in Iran.

“It’ll guarantee the midterms. If you don’t get it, big trouble, my opinion,” Trump told the assembled lawmakers. “I’m not going to sign anything until this is approved. If it takes you six months, I’m for not approving anything.”

The legislation would upend how Americans vote. It requires documented proof of citizenship — a passport or birth certificate — simply to register, and mandates photo identification to cast a ballot.

The list of acceptable IDs is so narrow that it excludes student IDs from state universities and accepts tribal IDs only if they bear expiration dates, even though many tribal IDs do not include them.

At least 21 million eligible American citizens lack ready access to the documents required by the bill, according to research from the Brennan Center for Justice and the University of Maryland. Roughly half of all Americans do not possess a passport, and millions more — particularly married women whose names differ from those on their birth certificates — would face additional hurdles to make their voices heard.

“This bill makes it more difficult for women, members of our military, and seniors to participate in the democratic process,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, on the Senate floor. “The president says he won’t allow us to send any bill to him to be signed into law until we pass this law denying the right to vote to millions of Americans in November — that’s what the whole issue is about.”

The White House defended the measure Wednesday, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt describing it as “one of the most critical pieces of legislation in our nation’s history” and citing public support for voter identification requirements.

“Only American citizens have the right to vote in American elections,” Leavitt said. “But after Joe Biden and the Democrats allowed tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country, it’s more important than ever to ensure that only American citizens are registering to vote in our nation’s voter rolls.”

Yet the problem the legislation purports to solve — noncitizen voting — is already illegal and vanishingly rare. Sen. Durbin noted that according to the conservative Heritage Foundation’s database, from 2003 to 2023, only 24 cases of noncitizen voting were documented nationwide over two decades. States that have combed through their voter rolls, including Louisiana and Utah, have repeatedly confirmed that illegally cast votes are virtually nonexistent.

“The system works,” Durbin said.

The bill’s future in the Senate remains uncertain. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority but would need 60 votes to overcome the filibuster, a threshold that appears out of reach without Democratic support. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has already declared the legislation “dead on arrival.”

But Trump is pressing ahead, demanding that House Speaker Mike Johnson revise the bill to include bans on transgender women in sports and gender-related medical procedures for minors — provisions the White House now describes as integral to the legislation. The House passed a version of the SAVE Act last month, but Trump’s new demands would require fresh action by the chamber.

The political calculation behind the push is unmistakable. Midterm elections historically punish the party controlling the White House — the president’s party has lost House seats in 18 of the 20 midterms since 1946. Trump’s approval rating hovers around 43 percent, and with Republicans holding only a razor-thin majority, any net loss of seats would flip control of the House to Democrats.

At the same time, the electoral battlefield has shifted. In 2018, there were 75 competitive House races. Ahead of this year’s midterms, the Cook Political Report identifies only 18 races as toss-ups. Republican strategists see the narrowed playing field as their best hope, but Democratic voters are showing significantly higher enthusiasm, holding a 12-point advantage among those “extremely enthusiastic” about voting.

The disconnect between Trump’s singular focus and his party’s broader messaging was on display at the Doral conference. While Trump demanded action on voting restrictions, House Republican leaders emphasized tax cuts, energy independence, and affordability for working families — the pocketbook issues that consistently rank as voters’ top concerns.

“Every time I go out, save America, sir. Save America Act,” Trump told the GOP gathering, describing what voters want to discuss. “That’s all they talk about. They don’t talk about housing. They don’t talk about anything. That’s what they want to talk about.”

House Speaker Johnson insisted there was no daylight between congressional Republicans and the White House, telling reporters, “We’re all on the same page. The president and I are exactly in lockstep.”

Beyond the legislative fight, the administration’s actions have raised alarms among voting rights advocates. The FBI recently raided election offices in Fulton County, Georgia — ground zero for Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election — and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared at the scene, later informing Congress that Trump personally ordered her presence even though her office plays no role in election matters.

Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist who served prison time for defying a congressional subpoena, declared this week, “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again.”

Federal law explicitly prohibits such actions, making it a crime to intimidate voters or deploy federal law enforcement to polling places.

For now, the SAVE America Act sits at the center of a high-stakes political confrontation. Its provisions would not only require proof of citizenship to register but also mandate voter roll purges every 30 days — ending the 90-day quiet period that protects voters from being mistakenly removed right before an election — and prohibit universal mail voting, overturning the longstanding practice in eight states and the District of Columbia.

“Make no mistake,” said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice. “The SAVE Act would stop millions of American citizens from voting. It would be the most restrictive voting bill ever passed by Congress. It is Trump’s power grab in legislative garb.”

As Congress grapples with funding for the Department of Homeland Security and international crises demand attention, Trump’s ultimatum threatens to grind legislative business to a halt. Johnson has suggested that if Trump refuses to sign bills, the Constitution allows legislation to become law after 10 days without the president’s signature.

But the speaker also sought to shift blame to Democrats over the DHS funding lapse, which has caused airport security lines to swell. “If you missed a wedding or funeral or are worried about missing your flight for spring break this weekend, you have Democrats to blame,” Johnson said.

The coming months will test whether the nation’s voting systems can withstand what advocates describe as an unprecedented assault. “In 2026,” Waldman said, “the right to vote will demand a fight to vote.”