Republican tears into Trump for demanding ‘impossible task’ as midterms loom

President Donald Trump is saddling his own party with an "impossible task" with the all-important midterms looming, according to one GOP lawmaker, insisting upon his longstanding obsession with a bill that lacks the votes to pass in the Senate.

Last week, Trump refused to sign a bipartisan housing affordability bill until Republicans in Congress passed the SAVE America Act, a bill that would change election laws in ways that critics argue would disenfranchise millions of voters. Under the bill, Americans would be required to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote, such as a passport or birth certificate. Studies have found that millions of Americans lack quick and easy access to these sorts of documents.

So far, the bill has stalled out, as it lacks the 60 votes necessary to overcome the Senate's filibuster threshold. GOP leaders have also been resistant to Trump's demand that they bypass filibuster rules, or nuke the rule altogether, in order to pass the bill, which he insists is needed to combat his false claims of non-citizens committing widespread voter fraud. This obsession is now holding up a bill that could help address a major affordability pain point for voters, who have long signaled that the cost of living is their biggest concern heading into the 2026 midterms.

Speaking about the situation during a Sunday appearance on CNN, Sen. Thom Tillis, an outgoing North Carolina Republican and outspoken Trump critic, ripped into Trump's demand, arguing that it is making the party's job vastly more difficult heading into the midterms.

"You know, I have people telling me I need to implement the SAVE Act immediately in North Carolina, in a state that has voter ID," Tillis told host Jake Tapper. "[Why] do I, over the next four months, have to try to pursue the impossible task of implementing a bill that simply can’t be implemented in that timeframe?"

He continued: "Why are we doing more things that undermine our confidence in elections rather than getting the strong message out that will win for Republicans this year?... Win by the good results that Republicans have produced and stop undermining the confidence in the elections. This is a bedrock of our 250-year history of success as the democracy that changed the world. Let’s not mess with that between now and November."

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and another scorned conservative rival of Trump, added during a recent CBS News interview that such voter ID measures were not needed at the national level, comparing it to the situation in his own state, which "had a reputation for corrupt elections" before ID laws were enacted.