Republicans say it’s time Trump change course on the SAVE America Act

For months, President Donald Trump has relentlessly pressed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act. An increasing number of Republicans say it’s time he changes course.

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“He wants to go it alone, his way to the highway, and it don’t work,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who’s retiring at the end of the year, told MS NOW. “He’s trying to pound the square peg through the circle, and it doesn’t work.”

After two failed votes in the Senate, unheeded calls to nuke the filibuster and countless attacks from Trump, Republican holdouts haven’t budged. Instead of forcing Democrats into politically difficult votes ahead of the midterms, Republicans have spent months highlighting their own divisions — with little to show for it.

Another House Republican, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal dynamics, said Trump just can’t change the reality of the Senate.

“The Senate does not have the votes to pass it, and no matter how much everybody wants to push on it, it’s not gonna move through the Senate unless through reconciliation,” the member said. “And that’s just a reality.”

Yet another House GOP lawmaker was more succinct: “Republicans — those of us who can do math — would like the president and other members to recognize that there isn’t a path forward.”

As Trump continues his pressure campaign — he managed to mention the SAVE America Act during his July Fourth speech on the National Mall Saturday night — several Republicans said it’s time for him to pivot. Instead of trying to force GOP skeptics in line, some lawmakers said Trump should consider a compromise with those holdouts, or even with Democrats.

“There’s things that we should be able to do,” the House GOP lawmaker said, “but we’re so focused on legislation that will never get a Democratic vote and won’t make it through the reconciliation that it’s stopping all progress.”

Politically, rather than continuing to pressure Republican skeptics, several lawmakers argued Trump should shift his attention to Democrats.

“The focus, the attention, is on the wrong target here,” a senior GOP Senate aide told MS NOW.

The frustration comes after the Senate twice rejected the voting legislation — once in April and again in June. Both times, the measure fell well short of the 60 votes needed for passage, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition. 

Still, Trump has refused to let it go.

The president and his top GOP allies have continued pressing lawmakers to pass the bill, which would require photo ID and proof of citizenship to vote, limit mail-in voting in most circumstances, ban transgender women from playing in men’s sports and prohibit minors from receiving gender-affirming care.

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In recent weeks, Trump canceled a planned signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing bill to pressure Congress on the voting legislation, urged Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster and even suggested they fire the Senate parliamentarian.

The strategy has yet to produce results — something even Republican supporters acknowledge.

“It’s quite simple: It’s a math problem,” retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters when asked about his objection with the SAVE America Act.

Tillis is one of the four Republicans who voted against the legislation twice, along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

“We simply don’t have the votes, and the SAVE America Act will not be implemented in time for this election,” he added. “Anybody that knows anything about election law understands that.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger in May, was even more direct, calling out “keyboard warrior-geniuses and grifters” who insist the legislation can pass despite the arithmetic.

“Promising the moon and stars and yet destining Republicans for failure is a very effective way to demoralize our base and elect more Democrats in the midterms,” Cornyn wrote on X.

The disagreement has also begun spilling into the House, where the fight over the SAVE America Act is now disrupting unrelated Republican priorities.

Last week, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent members home two days early for the July Fourth recess after a band of Republicans — led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla. — froze the floor, partly to force action on the SAVE America Act.

Despite Trump urging Republicans not to, Luna and her allies torpedoed a procedural rule because they were unhappy with how GOP leadership was handling the legislation, even though the House has already passed its version of the bill.

The protest prevented the House from processing the annual defense policy bill and passing a resolution to mark one-year since Republicans passed their sprawling reconciliation, leaving Republicans irate.

Asked whether he wished Trump would move on from the SAVE America Act, Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., answered carefully. 

“We just need to be practically minded,” he said.

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“We have a lot of very important business to conduct, not the least of which, important to me, are moving these appropriation bills, and we need to be able to, you know, provide meaningful legislative business in this House, and right now we’re hijacked,” said Womack, a 15-year veteran of the House. “We’re at an impasse.”

He also worried about the political optics.

“I don’t think it’s a good look this close to a midterm election,” he said. “It’s not a good look anyway, because we are the governing majority, but it’s certainly, the timing is not real good.”

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Meanwhile, House Republicans are looking to push pieces of the voting legislation through budget reconciliation, with Johnson announcing plans for a federal fund that states could use to implement parts of the bill.

“The only way to get that to the President’s desk, we’ve been shown many times, is to put it on a reconciliation bill, so that is in process,” Johnson told MS NOW last week.

Many Senate Republicans remain skeptical.

“It can’t,” Tillis said of the House GOP’s belief that the bill can pass through reconciliation. “If it could, we’d already be talking about it. Let’s just stop playing games. Let’s stop being dishonest.”

When a reporter suggested the House believed it could pressure the Senate by refusing to pass other legislation, Tillis laughed.

“That’s super cute,” he said.

With only a handful of legislative weeks remaining before the midterm elections, some Republicans want Trump and congressional leaders to focus on what can actually become law — either by scaling back the proposal or negotiating with Democrats.

Republicans point to polling that shows broad support for voter ID requirements. A Pew Research Center survey found that 83% of Americans support requiring photo ID to vote.

“The right thing to do, frankly, is you got voter ID, you can pass that, so take a win,” Bacon said. 

He continued that lawmakers could sit down and talk about citizenship verification. “That’s how it’s supposed to work,” Bacon said. “That’s how you get 60 votes in the Senate.”

But with Trump continuing to focus on GOP lawmakers rather than Democrats, and showing little interest in pursuing a compromise bill, few Republicans see the stalemate ending anytime soon.

In the meantime, GOP lawmakers are growing increasingly annoyed.

Asked if he was frustrated by the current situation, Womack didn’t hesitate. 

“Of course,” Womack said.

“If you’re not at least a little bit frustrated right now then, I question your sanity,” he added. “Nobody signed up for this.”