President Trump’s “patience is running out” with Senate Republicans and he wants to see real movement on his effort to require voters to show photo identification, his White House spokeswoman said Thursday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr. Trump is getting frustrated because he believes the SAVE America Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register and photo ID to vote, is widely popular with Americans.
“He wants to see as much of the SAVE America Act passed as possible by the August recess,” Ms. Leavitt said. “The House did its job, the Senate needs to do its job, too.”
The House has taken multiple votes to advance the election provisions, but each has stalled in the Senate amid opposition from all Democrats and a few Republicans.
Ms. Leavitt specifically called out Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, about the president’s impatience with the Senate. Mr. Thune fired back that the administration can press its case directly with recalcitrant lawmakers.
“Maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes,” Mr. Thune said. “And, so, instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats. And if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone. Let’s get them to ‘yes.’”
Mr. Trump says the legislation is needed to overcome alleged cheating by Democrats. He says they allow illegal immigrants or other non-eligible persons to vote, spoiling GOP chances.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, revealed this week that about 6,600 non-citizens were allowed to register to vote in her state because of an “error” in the state’s software system. Officials said fewer than 400 of them voted between June 2023 and June 2024.
Ms. Leavitt said the Trump administration highlighted the issue, and the Department of Homeland Security told states in a formal letter to report illegal voters and remove them from the rolls.
“That’s why, all of a sudden, [Ms. Sherrill] is speaking truth about the fact this does take place in states across this country,” Ms. Leavitt said.
She said Mr. Trump spoke about the issue on Wednesday in Georgia, and “there was very loud applause from the people in the audience.”
“Because voter ID is common sense, they want proof of citizenship in our elections,” she said. “And the president feels very strongly about that.”
Mr. Trump urged attendees to call Mr. Thune to press for Senate action.
The president has pushed multiple approaches to getting the SAVE America Act to his desk, including eliminating the legislative filibuster. Mr. Thune has maintained there is not enough GOP support for changing the Senate rules.
Mr. Trump has also endorsed a plan led by House GOP leaders to use the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to pass as much of the election integrity bill as possible.
The House began the process this week by adopting a budget resolution that would kickstart the process, but the budget reconciliation bill that would carry the actual provisions from the SAVE America Act will not be ready before September at the earliest.
Before the bill itself can be introduced and passed, the Senate must adopt an identical budget resolution with reconciliation instructions. The Senate needs to tweak the budget to comply with the chamber’s rules, which will send it back to the House, which is in recess until Aug. 31.
Mr. Thune has not ruled out the Senate acting on its own budget resolution in two weeks before it adjourns for its summer break but said that would be a heavy lift.
“You got to get to 50, and I can’t count to 50 right now on the budget resolution,” he said.
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