Trump folds in 'embarrassing fashion' after Congress calls his bluff

During the early months of 2026, President Donald Trump was focused on one piece of legislation in particular, the SAVE America Act, which he claimed would increase election security, but critics argued would disenfranchise millions of voters. At the time, he declared it his top priority, posting, “I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed.”

But now two months later, as the Rachel Maddow Blog points out, the president’s assertion has been proven to be categorically false. While White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt may claim that Trump “does not bluff,” it turns out that he was indeed bluffing in regard to SAVE, as not only has he signed numerous pieces of legislation since decreeing he would not do so, but the bill itself has been quietly vanished from public debate until Thursday, when it seemed to have been killed once and for all.

Two factors made passage of the bill unlikely from the get-go. First, there was the fact that it lacked support for congressional approval, as four Republicans had indicated they would side with Democrats opposing it. As this became apparent, it brought the second hurdle: an unwillingness on the part of Republican lawmakers to “nuke” the filibuster, which would eliminate the need for SAVE to reach a required 60-vote threshold. While Trump demanded they take such action, conservatives in Congress worried that it could backfire once the Democrats regain the majority, which is projected to happen in the upcoming midterms.

These obstacles have proven too great for the GOP to overcome. As the New Republic reports, “It seems that no one is coming to rescue the SAVE Act. Weeks after Donald Trump stressed to his party that passing that voter restriction bill was the ‘most important thing’ they could do, Senate Republicans have shelved the legislation entirely, unable to bypass the Democratic filibuster.”

This was corroborated by Punchbowl News, which noted, “Now, even the bill’s most outspoken GOP supporters are acknowledging that another drawn-out Senate floor debate would be a futile exercise.”

“We had a test vote. It failed,” admitted Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH). “So we’ve got to rethink what that means.”