{"id":168439,"date":"2026-07-28T01:26:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/168439\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T01:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:26:38","slug":"trump-demands-senate-cancel-august-break-until-it-passes-voting-bill-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/168439\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump demands Senate cancel August break until it passes voting bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> on Monday demanded that Senate Majority Leader John Thune cancel the chamber\u2019s upcoming August break until senators pass a strict proof-of-citizenship voting bill<\/a>, even as Republicans lack the votes<\/a> to advance it.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly urged<\/a> Thune to scrap the legislative filibuster, which effectively sets a 60-vote threshold for most legislation in the 100-member Senate, or find another workaround to pass the voting bill, known as the SAVE America Act. But Republicans hold only a 53-47 majority, and Thune has consistently said they don\u2019t have the votes to pass the bill or change the rules to get around the filibuster. <\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Thune should not allow the United States Senate to \u2018leave town\u2019 until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER,\u201d Trump wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

He later insisted to reporters Monday that he has a good relationship with the Senate majority leader but said Thune has \u201cgot to get his job done.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest escalation in a monthslong pressure campaign by Trump and others in the GOP base to pass the SAVE Act ahead of the midterms. A small but vocal group of Republican senators has also increasingly pressed Thune to find a way forward.<\/p>\n

Thune responded Monday afternoon, telling reporters he would be supportive of cancelling the break if there was a path forward on the legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe voted on it one, two, three, four, five times already,\u201d said Thune, who counted each number on his hand for reporters. \u201cShow me how this ends. What\u2019s the picture of victory at the end?\u201d<\/p>\n

House Republicans have also attempted to create another path for the legislation through the budget reconciliation process, which would allow grant money associated with voting rules to pass the Senate with a simple majority. <\/p>\n

The House last week approved<\/a> a budget framework that included $10 billion for voting-related changes aligned with the SAVE America Act. But Thune has said Republicans don\u2019t currently have the votes for that approach, either.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s pressure comes during an important period<\/p>\n

The fight threatens to complicate the Senate\u2019s final legislative sprint before the August break, when Thune had hoped to focus on a long list of priorities that includes government funding, cryptocurrency legislation and sanctions on Russia. The August break, scheduled to start on Aug. 7, is a pivotal stretch for senators to return home and campaign ahead of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Several Republican senators are facing competitive races, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Ohio Sen. Jon Husted and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate majority. Republicans are confronting broader political headwinds as well, including an unpopular war in Iran, surging gas prices<\/a> and costs that remain high for voters.<\/p>\n

Thune has enjoyed broad support from his GOP conference all year as he\u2019s pushed back on Trump\u2019s demands. He previously kept the SAVE Act on the Senate floor for weeks in an effort to build additional support, but was unable to secure the votes needed to advance it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can stay here until the cows come home and it\u2019s not going to change anything,\u201d said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican who lost a primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed candidate. \u201cWe keep overpromising and underdelivering, which is not a recipe for voter morale or high voter participation in the midterm elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he believes Thune\u2019s position on SAVE is reflective of the majority of the GOP conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president has to look at the reality: The majority of Republican members support John Thune,\u201d Tillis said. \u201cI don\u2019t even think it\u2019s close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump allies challenge Thune\u2019s approach<\/p>\n

Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who has led the push for the bill in the Senate, escalated his pressure late last week, warning that how Republicans handle the SAVE America Act \u201ccould impact not only the November midterm elections, but also the Senate GOP leadership elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaders must lead. And if they don\u2019t, they\u2019re not leaders,\u201d Lee wrote on social media Friday.<\/p>\n

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he believes Thune is \u201cbeing a bit too cautious right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, you have to vote,\u201d Kennedy said. <\/p>\n

Frustrated by the pressure when he doesn\u2019t have a route to pass the bill, Thune has urged Trump, Lee and others to help him find the votes. Trump on Friday said he\u2019d \u201ccertainly be willing\u201d to help call senators. <\/p>\n

Asked last week if Trump is frustrated with Thune, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that \u201chis patience is running out.\u201d But Trump told reporters on Air Force Once Monday while traveling to an event in Michigan, that he hasn\u2019t \u201ceven thought\u201d about potential replacements for Thune.<\/p>\n

The late-summer dispute echoes a similar fight before last year\u2019s August recess, when Trump pressed Thune to keep senators in Washington to clear a backlog of his nominees. The Senate ultimately left town without a deal after negotiations with Democrats collapsed.<\/p>\n

The SAVE America Act would create new national rules<\/p>\n

The SAVE America Act, which stands for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility<\/a>, would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand.<\/p>\n

Voting experts have said the bill could disenfranchise some 20 million American voters who don\u2019t have birth certificates or other documents readily available.<\/p>\n

Trump has made it his legislative priority in 2026, saying it would \u201cguarantee the midterms\u201d and falsely claimed that election cheating is \u201crampant.\u201d He previously declined to sign any other legislation until it was passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Senate Majority Leader John Thune cancel the chamber\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[142],"tags":[26367,3372,12,1665,903,1739,475,34528,1192,2512,1193,51,21695,4654,5893,33508,6238,6003,2194,1194],"class_list":["post-168439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-john-thune","tag-dan-sullivan","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-john-cornyn","tag-john-kennedy","tag-john-thune","tag-jon-husted","tag-karoline-leavitt","tag-legislation","tag-mike-lee","tag-politics","tag-soviet-union","tag-susan-collins","tag-thom-tillis","tag-trump-hub","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-utah","tag-voting","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116995003700550033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}