Trump’s Latest Own Goal

Or, how to turn a easy win into a political loser

Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.

In honor of FIFA, let’s review the biggest “own goal” yet, committed by the ailing U.S. president.

On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) stood at the podium in Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill. He was feeling triumphant, having helped lead his conference to finally pass “a really important bill to lower housing costs.” It was the first major legislative achievement of the year, and a bipartisan one at that, just in time to have something to show voters before the midterms. It could prove the GOP really cared about issues like affordability and the high cost of living!

Rep. French Hill (R-AR)—chair of the powerful House Financial Services Committee and the bill’s floor manager—was also jubilant. He declared, “Let’s show the American people what legislating looks like. Let’s show the American people how you bring together and do something on a bicameral basis, and we did that.”

Hill had long claimed it had been his “top goal” to lower the cost of housing. “This bill does that, so I’m proud of the work that both chambers have struggled through,” he said. “But it’s successful today, and I’m proud of the work of the House and Senate to get people to ‘yes.’”

Cue sad trombone. What he did not know was that, at that very moment, Donald Trump had already posted on Truth Social canceling the planned signing of the bill. A reporter had to break the news to him.

Workers quietly removed the presidential seal from the podium. Democrats moved in to use the stage as a backdrop for their condemnations. The party that had spent months clawing this bill to the finish line left the stage, in full view of the public, with nothing to show for it.

The road to the ROAD to Housing Act

The bill is formally known as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. ROAD, in the forced manner these bills receive their titles, stands for “Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream.” Name aside, it represents the most sweeping housing legislation in decades, and it addresses a core problem in housing: supply.

In the years since the 2008 financial crisis, homebuilding has lagged, creating a shortage that has pushed prices higher as demand continues to outstrip supply. A family now needs an income of roughly $117,000 a year to afford the typical home on the market—almost $30,000 more than what most American households earn.

The bill attacks that problem on several fronts. It includes grant funding and pilot programs to build new homes, eases federal regulations, and empowers local governments to expedite housing reviews. It also restricts large institutional investors, including hedge funds and private equity firms, from buying more single-family homes once they own at least 350, a provision that drew bipartisan support. Co-sponsors Tim Scott (R-SC) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), admittedly strange political bedfellows, said jointly: “Today’s bipartisan vote is an important step toward addressing America’s housing affordability crisis and giving families across this country a fair shot at the American Dream.”

Getting to the finish line was another matter. The bill spent months bouncing between chambers, nearly derailed multiple times by intraparty fighting on the Republican side. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD) flatly told Politico that the House would “deal with housing in some way—it’s not going to be the way the Senate is going to send it over to the House.” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) threatened to block the bill’s rule vote entirely, tying her objection not to housing policy but to her frustration that Senate Majority Leader John Thune wasn’t moving fast enough on a separate elections bill (more on that later). Key provisions were stripped or renegotiated to bring conservatives along. In the end, all opposition in both chambers came from Republicans. Not a single Democrat voted against the final bill.

Francis Torres, housing and infrastructure director at the Bipartisan Policy Center, called the legislation “the most serious that Congress has gotten about housing reforms in a generation.” The Senate passed it 85–5. The House followed 358–32. Those are very high margins, almost unheard of in an age of political division.

The signing ceremony was scheduled for noon Wednesday in Statuary Hall.

Trump said what now?

Trump’s team set up the easy score for him. The night before the planned signing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised the bill online as “one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history.” She added, “This bipartisan bill includes policies long championed by the President,” writing of its many provisions, “It cuts unnecessary red tape, helps increase housing supply, and limits the ability of large institutional investors to purchase single-family homes. As the President has said, homes should be owned by American families, not large corporations. President Trump promised to lower housing costs, and he is delivering, making it easier for every family to achieve the American Dream of homeownership. Tomorrow’s historic bill signing is another promise made, promise kept.”

James Blair, the recently departed White House deputy chief of staff now running Trump’s midterm operation, called it “a signature commitment that President Trump laid out in the State of the Union.”

Then the president picked up his phone and started to type.

As The National Desk reported, the White House went from touting the bill as a monumental achievement to downplaying its importance in less than 24 hours. In a Truth Social post, he called it “The Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren centric housing bill, which is of minor importance compared to lower interest rates… pales in comparison to passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.” He then continued: “Get the bad Republicans to approve it or, better yet, Terminate the Filibuster and approve it, AND EVERYTHING ELSE REPUBLICANS HAVE EVER DREAMED OF. The Dumocrats will do it in hour one, 100%. Republicans will feel very stupid if they don’t do it first. I’ll be watching with tears in my eyes!!!”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Trump made the decision to cancel the signing during a phone call between the two that morning. Johnson had been walking Trump through how Trump’s elections bill, the so-called SAVE America Act, could be passed through the reconciliation process (though that is dubious). He then had to sane-wash Trump’s about-face, later telling reporters: “He has a window of time before he has to sign a bill, and he’s going to use a little bit more of that window of time. He’ll do it within that 10-day window.”

What Trump wants instead—and why he can’t have it

Trump’s latest demand is that Congress first pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act before he signs anything else. He called it a “National Emergency.”

The SAVE America Act contains many voter suppression provisions. It would abolish most mail-in voting, require voters to bring proof of citizenship and proof of residency to register, mandate voter roll purges every 30 days, and include provisions banning transgender healthcare and restricting trans girls and women from competing in women’s sports. The bill sparked nationwide controversy earlier this year over a provision that would have made it more difficult for married women to vote. The backlash gummed up Homeland Security funding for months before Republicans had to abandon the package.

It bears repeating that noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal and rarely happens. But debate over the bill's merits or flaws is already academic; the SAVE America Act does not have the votes to pass the Senate, let alone clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) called it an “unachievable goal.”

The political damage

Republican senators made clear Wednesday they understood exactly what had just happened and were mighty displeased that Trump apparently had headbutted the political ball past their own goalie.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said Trump’s move “makes no sense” because the housing bill addresses a core voter concern before the election. Sen. Tillis was blunter: “I don’t know why you’re holding a bill that’s ready for signature hostage over a bill that will never pass this Congress, makes no sense to me. There is a huge group of people who really appreciate what the president’s doing right now, and it’s the Democrat party.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) called Trump’s reversal “inexplicable,” declaring, “I don’t know if there’s a precedent for it” and adding that colleagues whipping up Trump over a bill that can’t pass aren’t helping Republican chances in tough fall races. “I just don’t understand what they’re doing, what the point is. We do have midterm elections coming up here.”

Tim Scott (R-SC), the lead Senate Republican sponsor of the bill and chair of the Senate Banking Committee, bravely declined to comment.

Senate Majority Leader Thune, normally talkative, also declined to comment when first asked. “At this point, I don’t have any observations about that,” he told reporters. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) urged Trump to sign the bill “and stop making such a fool of himself.”

Trump then attended a closed-door lunch with Senate Republicans at the Capitol— invited not by Thune or GOP leadership, as is customary, but by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. It turned contentious on multiple fronts.

Inside, as CNN reported, Rick Scott told Trump directly that they don't have the votes to pass the SAVE America Act. “I said this is where we are today,” Scott recounted afterward. “I’m a business guy. You have to live in reality.” After the lunch, Thune told reporters the conference had a “robust conversation” with the president, who made his views “very clear” even if he still refuses to accept political reality.

“We know how he feels on it,” Thune said. “I’m not sure what the takeaway was for him regarding that, but I think it’s fair to say that we’ve made the point a number of times that we don’t have the votes. But that’s not a conclusion, obviously, he would like to see us draw.”

When a reporter asked Trump directly whether he would veto the housing bill if it reached his desk, he didn’t answer. “I said I’m not signing the housing bill,” Trump said. “I want to see what happens with SAVE. Look, the housing bill is, I made billions of dollars with housing.”

Jim Tobin, president of the National Association of Home Builders, said he was on his way to the ceremony—walking through Capitol security—when Trump decided to hold the housing bill hostage. He called it “very disappointing,” citing two years of bipartisan work among industry leaders, lawmakers and the White House. “People, I believe, want to run—back home—on the affordability issue,” Tobin said. “This would be a great feather in a lot of Congress members’ hats, as well as the president’s.”

Sen. Warren put it plainly on CNBC. “He could be over here trying to claim a victory lap,” she noted. “And instead he’s saying, no, no, he doesn’t want anything to do with it. It’s because he really doesn’t care about American families.” Online, she drew a direct connection to the doomed SAVE America Act: “Huge bipartisan majorities in Congress passed a bill to lower housing costs. Trump refuses to sign it because he wants a bill that makes it harder to vote.”

The cancellation had immediate downstream consequences. A group of House Republicans led by Rep. Luna vowed to block any legislation from reaching the floor until the SAVE America Act passes, forcing the House to cancel rule votes for the entire week. Without those votes, the House cannot bring any bills to the floor. Congress is now gridlocked—not by Democrats, but by its own members, at the direction of its own president.

What happens now

There is a technical path by which the housing bill becomes law anyway. Once presented to the president (and it’s not clear that has happened yet), if Trump neither signs nor vetoes it within 10 days (excluding Sundays) while Congress is in session, it becomes law automatically. The margins it passed by—92 percent of the House and 94 percent of the Senate—already exceed the two-thirds threshold needed to override a veto, assuming GOP lawmakers would ever dare vote to override him.

Congress is scheduled to begin a two-week recess on Friday, but Senate leaders plan to hold pro forma sessions throughout. Those are brief, largely ceremonial meetings that keep Congress technically in session. That matters because a president can “pocket veto” a bill simply by not signing it, but only if Congress adjourns during the 10-day window. With pro forma sessions in place, that escape hatch is closed and the clock keeps running. (I told you this was technical. Try putting all that into a Schoolhouse Rock song!)

The likeliest outcome is that the bill becomes law without Trump’s signature. It’s a fitting coda for a president who turned his party’s one genuine legislative accomplishment, meant to help their own voters and give the GOP a win before the midterms, into a cynical and embarrassing demonstration of who those lawmakers actually work for.