Trump to Speaker Johnson: Pass the SAVE ACT or Just Shut Down Government

His Oath of Office: “I will support Trump 100%”

From THE HILL more on the SAVE act, actually voter suppression bill, and utter nonsense from Trump and GOP House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) BS with this updated headline:

“Trump complicates Speaker Johnson’s plan to avoid government shutdown”

Former President Trump is adding another layer of complication to the government funding fight as GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson plots his next step to address the looming shutdown deadline. 

Trump for months has called on Republicans to pair a bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote with a stopgap measure to keep the government open past September 30 that I just posted about here.

Speaker Johnson attempted to bring up a bill pairing that policy measure with a six-month funding extension — only to be stopped in his tracks by a wall of GOP opposition that crossed ideological lines. 

As a result, Johnson punted a scheduled vote. 

As Republican opposition to the stopgap grew this week, Trump chimed in to up the ante on his request and threatened a government shutdown writing on his Truth Social: “If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET.”

Corralling the slim House GOP majority to support any kind of partisan continuing resolution (CR) was already a tall order. But as Johnson and GOP leaders regroup and weigh whether they can get any wins on the must-pass legislation before the election, Trump’s demands are kicking the difficulty of the Speaker’s mission up a notch.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), senior appropriator said: “Mike’s job is complicated, trying to appease the conference. When there’s additional input coming from outside of the conference of significant influence — I mean, the former president’s got significant influence — that makes his decision making just a little bit more of a challenge.”

Speaker Johnson has made a point to maintain a good relationship with Trump. And as he pushes for his funding gambit, he expressed strong support for the voting legislation in question, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, telling FOX Business: “President Trump and I are on the same page, as is every Republican here. We have to ensure election security.”

But if Johnson heeds Trump’s request, Washington would head for a shutdown just weeks before the November elections. 

There is no appetite in the House GOP for that, with members worrying a shutdown — or even the threat of one — could harm their reelection chances.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said: “Senate Democrats refuse to pass the SAVE Act, which is shameful, and obviously the American people should hold them accountable for that. But we’re not shutting the government down with 54 days until Election Day.”

When Johnson was asked about the political consequences of a government shutdown in the context of Trump’s Truth Social post, Johnson said: “I don’t believe it’s going to come to that.”

Republicans have sought to make the election-integrity portion the public face of the shutdown fight, pinning the blame on Democrats’ refusal to take it up — and Trump’s public demands have only amplified that. But inside the Capitol, it is something of a sideshow as the House GOP plots a path forward on averting a shutdown.

Johnson is having trouble moving the CR-plus-SAVE Act out of the House as he faces opposition from hardline conservatives who hate stopgaps, defense hawks concerned about the impact the six-month bill will have at the Pentagon, and moderates worried about the threat of a shutdown so close to Election Day. 

None of the Republicans who announced their opposition to the stopgap package were against the SAVE Act, which passed the House as a stand-alone bill earlier in the year.

So far, none of the detractors appear to be influenced by Trump’s public pressure, even though the group includes strong Trump supporters. Even though Republicans aimed to advance political messaging with the package, virtually none of them expected Democrats would actually swallow the bill and see it enacted. 

Democrats and the White House say they will block the legislation, noting that non-citizen voting is already illegal and exceedingly rare and that the bill could unduly burden eligible voters by suppressing their vote (which is Trump’s aim to ensure he wins).

* Republicans were more focused on the six-month timeline for a new stopgap, hoping to use the SAVE Act as a negotiation point to avoid an end-of-year omnibus and allow Trump to slash spending and enact his priorities if he wins the election.

* * Democratic congressional leaders have said the funding deadline should not extend past the New Year.

Trump’s continued focus on the voting bill could complicate any effort to reset the continuing resolution debate or focus it on a six-month timeline.

One House Republican told The Hill: “Every time he says something it creates a contradiction that causes inaction.” 

Another said Trump should step away from the shutdown debate and focus on his own campaign.

Soon after posting the Truth Social message, Trump took a bruising in his debate against VP Kamala Harris, as they added: “He needs to worry about him. Trump and the House are not in tandem on the shutdown issue.”

Johnson, however, appears to be plowing ahead with his initial Trump-favored plan.

Caught between Trump’s influence in the party and a desire to avoid a shutdown, Johnson suggested to reporters that the CR-plus-SAVE Act could come up next week if GOP leaders can sway the holdouts, then he added: “The whip is going to do the hard work and build consensus. We’re going to work through the weekend on that. That effort had been fruitful.”

My 2 Cents: Both Trump and Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson are in laymen’s terms: “Full if it.”

As noted in the post graphic above, GOP Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson is weak, out of touch, and simply a lapdog for Trump – it’s just that simple and the facts above prove that.

Stay tuned as time will tell but in a nutshell, this is both Trump as the hardcore GOP conservative we all know and it’s SOP for him and it has been for decades – he’s never going to change – he stands for one thing and one thing only: Himself and not the nation or citizens.  

Thanks for stopping by.