No Path, No Votes: Inside the GOP Revolt Threatening Trump’s SAVE America Act

Election integrity has been a priority for President Donald Trump for years. In his second administration, that priority took legislative form in the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show ID to vote, along with a host of other safeguards.

But for months, the bill has stalled in the Senate, even as the president rages about it on Truth Social and to reporters in the Oval Office. Trump traveled to Capitol Hill last Thursday for a tense lunch with Senate Republicans over the legislation. It was a meeting that, according to one source, only set things back further. Around the same time, Trump shelved plans to sign a housing bill, a move some sources see as tied to his frustration with the Senate.

Now, the SAVE America Act appears to be in more limbo than ever.

Sources familiar with the situation tell the Caller that the legislation will likely never have the votes to move forward. Still, one White House official told the Caller that the administration is exploring every possible path to get it done, because for this president, it remains a priority he is determined to see through.

“…our five Republican Senate Hold Outs, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, and Mitch McConnell must vote to SAVE OUR COUNTRY,” Trump said on Truth Social of those keeping the legislation from moving forward. “There can be no more excuses!”

Multiple sources told the Caller that, as the legislation currently stands, it doesn’t have the votes, and that the senators Trump named are unlikely to come on board. Killing the filibuster, which the president has also floated as a way to force the bill through, runs into the same wall, those sources said.

The path forward doesn’t run through the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, either. If Trump vetoes that legislation, one source said, Congress has the votes to override him. But a source familiar with the president’s thinking said a veto won’t be necessary; Trump isn’t expected to reject the bill.

“It’s a yawn,” Trump said on Monday of the housing legislation. “To me, compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”

Speaker Mike Johnson has floated putting the legislation into a reconciliation bill. The House voted down a procedural measure Tuesday that would have allowed debate on tying the bill to the National Defense Authorization Act. It is a legislation Congress is expected to take up alongside a reauthorization of FISA Section 702 and annual appropriations bills.

That FISA fight has become its own flashpoint. When Trump’s former Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, resigned to care for her husband amid his cancer diagnosis, the president temporarily installed FHFA Director Bill Pulte atop the agency.

The move that set off alarms in the Senate, with Democrats threatening to block a FISA renewal over Pulte’s appointment. Trump later nominated Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, for the ODNI post, but killed a path to a quick confirmation hearing, leaving Pulte in place longer than expected.

One source familiar with Senate dynamics said the ODNI standoff and the back-and-forth over Clayton are being interpreted on the Hill as Trump’s way of making senators pay for failing to pass the SAVE America Act. A White House official pushed back on that characterization.

Even as his team searches for a way forward, the president himself seems unsure the bill will ever pass. One White House official said Trump’s passion for the issue stems from the campaign trail, where he’s heard from Americans across the country who want to see it become law. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Mike Lee Explains How LBJ Broke A Filibuster And What It Means For The SAVE America Act)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has absorbed much of the blame for the bill’s collapse. Trump himself told the Caller he was “disappointed” in Thune for failing to either kill the filibuster or pass the legislation.

But a source familiar with the president’s thinking said that frustration isn’t really about Thune. Trump likes him and knows his members do too. The president’s irritation, the source said, is with the individual senators who won’t get on board.

“The SAVE America Act has always been a top priority for President Trump, and it remains one. This is commonsense legislation supported by the vast majority of Americans that will secure our elections for generations to come,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, told the Caller.

“The President knows how critical this issue is for the American people, and he will not stop fighting until it is passed,” she added.