After touting the controversial SAVE America Act as “a Country Defining fight for the Soul of our Nation!”, President Donald Trump is now suggesting it would reshape rules for sports participation and health care access for transgender people — changes the bill does not actually make.
The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and voter ID to vote at the polls. It would also sharply restrict mail-in voting. Critics argue the legislation will disenfranchise millions of Americans who do not have a passport or access to their birth certificates. It could make voting difficult for married people who changed their names but not their names on their records. Someestimates say more than 140 million Americans do not have a valid passport and millions do not have access to a paper copy of their birth certificates.
According to President Trump’s Truth Social post on Thursday, the bill requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote, and no mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military, or travel. It also bans “men in women’s sports,” and “transgender mutilation surgery for children, without the express written approval of the parents.”
The current House and Senate versions of the bill do not mention transgender people or sports.
Transgender issues are a hot button issue for many of Trump’s supporters, as he continues to push passage of the bill “at the expense of everything else.”
Last month, Trump said that if Congress passes strict voting measures Republicans “won’t lose a race for 50 years,” CNN reported.
“We’ll never lose a race for 50 years. We won’t lose a race. We want voter ID. We want proof of citizenship, and we don’t want mail-in ballots,” he said, while supporting some exceptions.