President Trump abruptly canceled the signing of a bipartisan housing affordability bill on Wednesday, reaffirming his vow not to sign any legislation until Congress passes the SAVE America Act to dramatically overhaul U.S. elections.
“Today’s housing news conference and signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE America Act, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social less than two hours before the signing ceremony was to take place at the White House.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson said he expects Mr. Trump to sign the housing bill within the 10-day window the Constitution provides for a president to sign or veto legislation.
The Louisiana Republican said the president gave him a heads-up about his plan to cancel the signing ceremony during a 20-minute phone call they had Wednesday morning.
“He has expressed the priority and the preference of the SAVE America Act. We share that,” Mr. Johnson said. “We passed it three times in the House.”
The speaker said he has advised Mr. Trump that the only path to getting the bill through the Senate amid universal Democratic opposition is using the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process.
“We believe that if you create a grant program that ties it to reconciling the budget, and you allow blue states — if they come to their senses and they want to avail themselves of election integrity proposals and ideas and policies — they can draw down from a federal fund and use those,” he said. “We’re willing to invest heavily in that.”
Mr. Johnson said he walked the president through that plan in detail on Wednesday, as he has previously, and Mr. Trump said he wants to see some progress on it before signing the housing bill.
“I said, ’I’d love to show it to you. We got a meeting today, and some more coming up,’” Mr. Johnson said.
It is not clear whether Mr. Trump plans to veto the bill. A White House spokesperson declined to comment, referring to the president’s Truth Social post.
Democrats condemned Mr. Trump’s decision.
“Congress passed a bipartisan bill to make it easier to own a home,” Rep. Jason Crow, Colorado Democrat, wrote on X. “The President is refusing to sign it. Donald Trump doesn’t care about lowering costs for you.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said Mr. Trump was “making such a fool of himself” by refusing to sign a bill that would make housing more affordable. But, he added, “It looks like even if Trump decides to veto it, there are probably enough votes in both houses to override that veto.”
He said Trump was “running away from one of the very few accomplishments that could actually help the American people.”
Ahead of his lunch on Capitol Hill with Senate Republicans, Mr. Trump was asked if the election legislation was more important to him than solving the housing crisis, but he appeared to mishear the question.
“Every election is important. We’re doing very well. They want a lot of communists to come in. I’m saying it a little bit differently, but the people, they are pushing are communists and this country is not going to have communists,” Mr. Trump said.
The president was referring to Tuesday’s election results in which socialist candidates in New York City swept the Democratic primaries for the U.S. House.
Mr. Trump was scheduled to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which aims to both increase housing supply and lower the cost of homeownership by cracking down on large institutional investors buying up homes. Lawmakers in both parties have made the measure a priority in the midterm election year to address voters’ concerns about the cost of living.
The bill cleared the House 358-32 one day after it was passed in the Senate by a vote of 85-5, a rare bipartisan achievement for a largely gridlocked Congress.
It would grant funding and create pilot programs to build new homes, ease construction regulations and empower local governments to expedite reviews to build housing. The legislation would also limit large institutional investors from buying single-family homes.
Mr. Trump has been supportive of the bill and was expected to sign it into law. The bill would have given Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, an easy win on a popular affordability issue ahead of the November midterms.
However, Mr. Trump reiterated his promise not to sign any bills until the SAVE America Act is passed. That legislation, which would overhaul voting laws and require proof of citizenship nationwide to register to vote, faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, acknowledges he doesn’t have the votes to pass it.
The president made his surprise announcement canceling the signing of the housing bill just hours before he was to attend Senate Republicans’ weekly luncheon on Capitol Hill.
In March, Mr. Trump declared the SAVE America Act “supersedes” all other legislation.
“Must go to the front of the line. I, as president, will not sign other bills until this is passed and not the watered down version — go for the gold; must show voter I.D. and proof of citizenship. No mail-in ballots except for military — illness, disability, travel,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump also said he wouldn’t support any renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which supporters say is critical to protect the nation’s security, unless the Senate passes the SAVE Act.
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