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Trump immediately flexes presidential powers: 1,500 pardons and a raft of executive orders

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Trump immediately flexes presidential powers: 1,500 pardons and a raft of executive orders

President Trump quickly flexed the sweeping powers of the presidency following his second inauguration at the Capitol on Monday, signing a slate of executive orders that would radically alter U.S. policy if allowed to stand.

He also pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of his loyalists — more than 1,500 people — who stormed the same Capitol building in a failed attempt to illegitimately keep him in power four years prior, repeatedly referring to them as “hostages.”

“We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said during an evening signing ceremony at the Oval Office — a reference to the fact that many of those defendants were in prison for serious offenses such as assaulting police officers.

Trump’s orders reflected an aggressive start to the conservative agenda he promised on the campaign trail, aimed at reining in illegal immigration, strengthening U.S. manufacturing and the broader economy, rolling back LGBTQ+ rights, reinforcing American dominance abroad and bending the sprawling federal bureaucracy to his will.

At an evening rally in Washington, D.C., that was held in lieu of an outdoor parade because of frigid temperatures, Trump sat at a desk and used black markers to sign nine orders.

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The first, he said, undid about 80 “destructive, radical actions” made by President Biden — having to do with issues including immigration, the COVID-19 pandemic, voting rights, “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives, protections for LGBTQ+ people, the operation of prisons by private entities, tackling climate change and other environmental protections.

The other orders withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement and informed the United Nations of that decision; placed freezes on new federal regulations and most federal hiring while his administration gets into place; mandated federal workers return to in-person work full time; and sent directives to federal agencies to protect free speech, end the “weaponization of government” for political purposes, and find ways to decrease inflation and high costs for average Americans.

Trump said he also would later sign other orders — such as one mandating that agencies preserve all records pertaining to his own prosecution on various federal charges under the Biden administration. And he renewed campaign promises to take other actions, such as ending federal taxes on tipped wages.

Trump concluded the event by tossing the markers he’d used to sign the orders into the crowd, to big cheers from his supporters.

Soon after, Trump was back in the Oval Office signing more orders and the pardons. One order announced the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization, while another purported to end the long-established constitutional guarantee of U.S. citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

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Trump commuted the sentences of 14 people — including some of the highest-profile Jan. 6 defendants — to time served, and granted full pardons to everyone else convicted of offenses from that day. The Justice Department recently estimated that it had charged more than 1,500 people, including 590 with assaulting, resisting, impeding or obstructing law enforcement.

As of November, nearly 1,000 had pleaded guilty, more than 200 had been found guilty at trial, and more than 600 had been sentenced to time behind bars.

Trump’s pardons followed a last-minute decision by Biden to flex the same power on his way out of the White House by pardoning members of Congress and their staffers who had investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, as well as other former U.S. officials who have drawn Trump’s ire for having challenged his authority in the past.

The orders, which Trump also described in some detail in his inaugural speech Monday morning, reflected just how starkly divided the nation has become politically — and the degree to which Trump feels emboldened to shirk tradition and legal precedent as the first president to win a nonconsecutive second term in the White House in the last 132 years.

While promising the return of a “golden age of America” under his watch, Trump declared two national emergencies — one to do with southern border crossings, and the other to do with energy independence. He promised several measures to address each, including closing the border entirely to asylum seekers — in part by reinstating his “Remain in Mexico” policy and sending military troops to the border — and by clearing away federal energy regulations so that oil and gas producers can “drill, baby, drill.”

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In an early sign of the policies being implemented, immigrants with asylum claims at the southern border were told Monday that scheduled interviews they had with U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been canceled.

Trump said he would declare that there are only “two genders” — a swipe at transgender people that echoed attacks by Trump’s campaign — and revoke regulations intended to transition the nation toward electric vehicles. He said he would institute many new tariffs on foreign goods, launch a new “external revenue service” to collect the associated revenue, and launch a new Department of Government Efficiency to reduce waste — the last of which would be led by Elon Musk, the owner of X and Tesla and the world’s richest man.

Trump also said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and take the Panama Canal from Panama.

“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said during his inauguration speech in the Capitol Rotunda. “It’s all about common sense.”

Whether Trump’s directives will survive and how quickly they will be implemented remains unclear. Survival of the most controversial and legally dubious decrees will depend on the courts, experts said. Implementation will depend in part on how quickly Trump can get his Cabinet appointments confirmed by the Senate and stand up his new government, they said.

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Advocates for immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and other targeted groups joined liberal leaders — including in California — in promising to fight back against Trump’s agenda, including in court if necessary.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said last week that his office would be watching what Trump does Monday and responding in kind — including with the help of pre-written legal briefs anticipating certain actions that the state will argue in court are illegal.

San Francisco City Atty. David Chiu said Monday that Trump had delivered a “dark, dangerous and authoritarian vision for our country,” and that his office would be analyzing Trump’s executive orders in coming days and weeks and “will do everything in our power to protect San Francisco and our residents from illegal federal action.”

The Jan. 6 pardons could result in swifter action, and less resistance — given that a president’s pardon powers are generally unquestioned.

Attorneys for some of the imprisoned defendants said before the inauguration that they were watching Trump’s actions closely and would be poised to respond with legal motions seeking their clients’ immediate release.

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In addition to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack, Biden also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who helped lead the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mark A. Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who has called out Trump’s handling of the insurrection.

All had been threatened with potential criminal charges and investigation by Trump and his supporters. Biden called them public servants who “have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”

Trump called Biden’s pardons “unfortunate” and “disgraceful.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the former chair of the Jan. 6 committee, issued a statement on behalf of the committee’s former members, in which he said they were grateful to Biden.

“We have been pardoned today not for breaking the law,” Thompson said, “but for upholding it.”

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One of the committee members, Sen. Adam B. Schiff of California, said he was proud of the committee’s work and believed Biden’s grant of pardons to its members was “unnecessary, and because of the precedent it establishes, unwise.”

However, Schiff — one of Trump’s favorite targets for derision — said he also understood why Biden had issued the pardons “in light of the persistent and baseless threats issued by Donald Trump and individuals who are now some of his law enforcement nominees.”

The exercise of presidential powers on a new president’s first day in office — or his last, in Biden’s case — is not new.

Presidents have often issued pardons on their way out of office, and they have always fought to meet campaign promises and show policy results quickly.

The notion that a president should be judged by their accomplishments within their first “100 days” in office has been a “touchstone” of American politics since at least the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congressional Research Service analyst Ben Wilhelm wrote in a formal analysis of executive orders and presidential transitions last year.

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However, in recent decades, the number of executive orders issued early on in new administrations has increased, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, Wilhelm noted. That is in part as incoming presidents have issued orders undoing the orders of their predecessors.

Biden did it to undo orders by Trump. On Monday, Trump did it to undo orders by Biden.

Trump on Monday suggested his “Day 1” actions were especially warranted. He said he had been saved by God from assassination attempts during the campaign so that he could “make America great again,” and repeatedly cited a “mandate” from voters to carry out his agenda — suggesting his victory over Biden in November was monumental.

Trump did amass a sizable victory in the electoral college, and swept to victories across the nation’s swing states. However, his popular vote margins — both as a percentage of overall votes and by raw votes — were historically small.

Out of more than 152 million votes cast, Trump won by just over 2 million. And he won fewer than 50% of the total vote — at 49.9%, compared to 48.4% won by Vice President Kamala Harris, according to the Associated Press. That means that while Trump does enjoy massive support for his agenda, there are also nearly as many Americans who voted against him and that agenda.

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Trump-aligned House holdouts accused of holding ‘life-saving’ veterans bill ‘hostage’ over SAVE America Act

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Trump-aligned House holdouts accused of holding ‘life-saving’ veterans bill ‘hostage’ over SAVE America Act

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A sweeping veterans package supporters describe as the largest expansion of veterans’ health care and benefits in more than a decade is expected to return to the House floor when lawmakers come back from the July recess, but backers warn the legislation could once again become collateral damage in the Republican standoff over the SAVE America Act.

The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act rolls roughly 60 veterans bills into a package that would dramatically expand veterans’ health care and benefits. At its core, the legislation would cement veterans’ access to community care outside the VA while increasing benefits for combat-wounded veterans, caregivers and Gold Star families, expanding mental health services and enacting dozens of additional reforms.

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., told Fox News Digital he intends to bring the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act back for a vote as soon as the House reconvenes next week.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – MARCH 17: Eugene Simpson, 29, from Dale City, Virginia goes through physical therapy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. with Michael Minor, a kinesiotherapist with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs on March 17, 2006 in Washington, D.C., USA. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images) (Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images)

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HOUSE CONSERVATIVES DERAIL GOP AGENDA IN SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWDOWN

The legislation was held up last month after a group of House Republicans joined Democrats to defeat a procedural vote, stopping the House from taking up the bill.

“I’m feeling good as long as my members stay with us on the rule,” Bost said. “Right now, there’s some politics being played, not about this bill, but just in general.”

The bill became entangled in a broader House Republican fight over the SAVE America Act, legislation championed by President Donald Trump that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

On June 30, the House voted on H. Res. 1398, the procedural rule governing floor consideration of several bills, including the National Defense Authorization Act and the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. The rule failed after 14 Republicans joined Democrats in opposition, preventing the House from taking up the veterans package and bringing floor business to a standstill. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., claimed to have voted against the rules vote in protest against House leadership’s handling of the SAVE America Act. As a result, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent the members home early.

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Bost accused the holdouts of effectively putting veterans legislation on hold.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs building is seen in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2019. (Photo by Alastair Pike / AFP) (Photo credit should read ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo credit should read ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Image)

‘IT’S A MESS’: GOP TURNS ON HOUSE CONSERVATIVES AS VOTER ID BLOCKADE STALLS TRUMP’S AGENDA

“They’re holding all bills hostage,” Bost said. “They’re not voting for any rule. Any bill that has to pass a rule before it comes to the floor—which this bill does because of its size—can’t move.”

Although Bost said he supports the SAVE America Act and has voted for it three times, he argued the Senate’s failure to act should not stop the House from advancing unrelated legislation.

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“I agree with that bill,” Bost said. “But the Senate still has to do their work. We don’t stop our work because the Senate isn’t doing it.”

With 23 legislative days left in the Congressional session, Concerned Veterans for America Strategic Director John Byrnes, a supporter of the bill, said time is of the essence.

“There are lots and lots of things that have to get done,” Byrnes told Fox News Digital. “There’s also the National Defense Authorization Act, which is a must pass every year, so these things eat up time. There’s requirements to have debate on these, which eat up session time.”

Byrnes argued that every procedural delay pushes other legislation further down the calendar.

“This bill will save lives in 2027,” Byrnes said. “If we lose veterans because they could have had faster, better access to health care, we’re never going to get those veterans back.”

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Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. ( )

TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE IN THE SENATE DESPITE REPUBLICAN REVOLT

But Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who also voted no on the procedural vote, told Fox News Digital that he has concerns about how the bill is financed.

“I appreciate what the chairman’s trying to do in some respects, but there’s a few issues,” Roy said.

Among them, Roy pointed to provisions offsetting new spending through changes affecting other veterans.

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“You’re taxing certain veterans to provide some sort of benefits and changes to other veterans,” Roy said. “There are concerns about some of the pay-fors.”

Veterans of Foreign Wars has also taken issue with Section 108 of the bill, warning that it would codify changes to future disability ratings for tinnitus and sleep apnea to help finance other veterans priorities.

But Bost said this is inaccurate.

“No veteran is going to have their benefits reduced,” Bost said. “If you’re receiving a benefit right now, that’s not going to be reduced at all.”

Roy, who previously served two years on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said he supported a lot of what the bill was seeking to accomplish; but said other pieces of legislation are priorities, too.

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“There is a block of us for whom border security, the SAVE Act and demonstrating our leadership on major issues is critical,” Roy said. “Some of these other bills may or may not get hung up based on a desire of many in the conference to see movement on other things.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Luna’s office and the White House for comment.

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Assassinations unleashed under Trump haunt Iran war endgame

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Assassinations unleashed under Trump haunt Iran war endgame

Shortly before President Trump ended a ceasefire with Iran this week, Israeli officials presented his team with intelligence indicating Tehran was hatching new plots to kill him.

It was not the first such warning. U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies have tracked evidence for years of Iranian efforts to target the president, with signals only increasing since the start of the war.

Their desire to target Trump and his top aides began six years ago, just outside Baghdad International Airport, when the president ordered a drone strike that killed Iran’s most powerful general. The assassination of Qassem Suleimani brought the two countries to the brink of war.

Yet even as full-scale war was averted, top Iranian officials vowed revenge for the strike, authorizing attempts on the lives not just of the president, but of his secretary of State and national security advisor, among others, even after they had left office.

Now, calls for revenge have reached a sharper pitch in Tehran, after a joint U.S.-Israeli operation killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the war in February.

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At Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies this week, red flags of vengeance flew throughout the capital as protesters explicitly called on their government to “kill Trump.” His son, Mojtaba, the new supreme leader, was absent from the commemorations, fearing assassination himself.

Mourners hold an anti-President Trump banner at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque during mass funeral prayers for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family in Tehran on Sunday.

(Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The prospect of foreign assassination plots targeting U.S. leaders puts the United States in dangerous new territory, where its embrace of political killings could ultimately place its own officials at unprecedented risk. And experts fear the existential threat of assassination has pushed peace further out of reach: When both sides believe their survival is at stake, the trust required for diplomacy becomes far harder to achieve.

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Israeli news organizations have reported that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, cited Iranian attempts to kill Trump in recent years as part of his case to go to war in the first place.

A U.S. official told The Times that a range of serious threats exist against the president, including from Iran, but that Israel’s intelligence pointed to a more specific plot. The official did not provide further details. Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said in recent months that the government sees vengeance against U.S. officials as “its legitimate duty and right,” and “will fulfill this great responsibility and duty with all its might.”

“The Suleimani killing accelerated a lifting of restraints on foreign assassinations — and the taboo on targeting and killing foreign leaders, with U.S. military assets, has been more or less lifted,” said Matt Dallek, a political professor at George Washington University.

“If the United States sets the example of how to conduct international relations, and it is using assassination of foreign leaders as a political weapon, it’s only logical that other countries will be more inclined to also engage in assassinations,” Dallek added. “It does seem likely that Trump will have a bigger target on his back.”

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Returning from a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday, Trump was forced to switch back to an old model of Air Force One — equipped with specialized defensive technologies — from a new plane given as a gift by Qatar, after the Secret Service warned of potential threats to the aircraft from Iran.

“They want to take out the U.S. leader — me,” Trump told reporters aboard the plane. “I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long.”

The threat has remained on his mind in the days since. In an interview with the New York Post, Trump told the reporter, “I hope you’ll miss me,” adding that he has “been on their list for a long time.” And in a subsequent social media post Friday night, he warned of a catastrophic response he instructed the administration to pursue in the event Tehran succeeds.

“1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote, “with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!”

The United States had a decades-old prohibition against assassinating foreign leaders before Trump’s presidency, codified in an executive order signed by President Ford in 1976 over concerns of a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro.

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The policy was only strengthened further by subsequent administrations, fearing a new international standard for targeted killings could result in unintended consequences in the halls of Washington.

Other administrations have been accused of targeting foreign leaders before. Under the Obama administration, an international coalition targeting the Libyan regime of Moammar Kadafi during the country’s 2011 civil war struck his fleeing convoy, leading to his capture and killing by rebel fighters.

But experts say Trump’s explicit targeting of Suleimani and Khamenei — and his public celebration of their deaths — marks a new paradigm.

“Through words and actions, President Trump has done more to normalize political violence than any other U.S. president, certainly in modern times,” said Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago and author of “Our Own Worst Enemies: America in the Age of Violent Populism.”

“On the international front alone, the president routinely brags about killing Iranian leaders and seizing the leader of Venezuela, among others,” he added, “to the point that assassination is becoming the new normal in international politics.”

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Trump takes unusual step, lets bipartisan housing bill become law unsigned amid SAVE pressure campaign

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Trump takes unusual step, lets bipartisan housing bill become law unsigned amid SAVE pressure campaign

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A bipartisan housing bill became law Saturday at midnight after President Donald Trump declined to sign it, capping a weeks-long saga over whether the president would veto the measure amid frustrations with Congress over his stalled agenda.

Trump refused to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — legislation aimed at expanding the nation’s housing stock and lowering costs — in an attempt to pressure Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, despite the housing bill clearing both chambers with overwhelming majorities.

“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, which is polling at 97% with the Republican Party, and very high with the non-politician Dumocrats,” he declared on Truth Social Friday morning. 

The Trump-backed election measure, which would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and impose voter ID requirements, has struggled to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. 

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Meanwhile, the House has not passed a version of the bill that includes the president’s proposed crackdown on mail-in voting and banning men from women’s sports.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES DERAIL GOP AGENDA IN SAVE AMERICA ACT SHOWDOWN

Under the U.S. Constitution, Trump had 10 days, not including Sundays, to sign or veto the housing measure after the House formally transmitted the legislation to the White House in late June. The president ultimately chose neither option, allowing the measure to become law without his signature.

Though Trump declined to veto the legislation, he sharply criticized elements of the bill and argued it should not have been a legislative priority in recent weeks.

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“It’s so unimportant … compared to the SAVE America Act,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in late June. “I think the SAVE America Act is exactly what it says. It’s saving America from crooked elections.”

Trump went on to call the housing bill “a yawn,” adding, “compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”

It would have taken a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override a veto — a margin the House and Senate exceeded when they passed the legislation. However, it remains unclear whether so many Republicans would have defied the president had he vetoed the bill.

Trump also appeared to criticize the bill over a provision restricting Wall Street investors from purchasing single-family homes — a policy he first proposed during his January State of the Union address and later urged Congress to pass. Trump previously argued the investor ban would give individual homebuyers a leg up against private equity firms in the housing market.

“I don’t want to hurt people that own houses, too,” Trump later told reporters, appearing to reference the provision. “These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses. They’ve become rich. I don’t want to hurt them either. What you want to do is what’s good for everyone, get the interest rates down.”

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The law also aims to boost housing supply by streamlining federal environmental reviews, loosening rules around the construction of factory-built homes, and incentivizing local governments to modify their zoning laws to allow more housing, among roughly 60 provisions.

Trump’s souring on the legislation created headaches for Republicans, who touted the bill as an affordability win as voters grapple with high housing costs.

“It’s irresponsible to postpone signing the Housing bill due to the SAVE Act,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a retiring lawmaker who lost re-election to a Trump-backed challenger, wrote on social media. “We need to start delivering relief to people for the high cost of housing ASAP!!”

Construction workers stand on the roof of homes under construction at a new housing development on June 24, 2026, in Valencia, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

WARREN TELLS TRUMP TO ‘SIGN THE DAMN BILL’ AS BIPARTISAN HOUSING PACKAGE REMAINS STALLED IN WASHINGTON

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Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony for the legislation at the U.S. Capitol in June with GOP leaders. The stage had already been set, with at least one senior Republican arriving unaware the president had called off the event shortly before it was scheduled to begin.

The president then declared he would not sign the legislation until Congress passed the SAVE America Act, despite Senate GOP leaders insisting the votes do not exist to advance the measure.

Trump has also expressed frustration with the Republican-controlled Senate for declining to weaken the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes to advance most legislation in the upper chamber.

“GET SMART REPUBLICANS, IF YOU DON’T, YOU WON’T BE IN OFFICE FOR LONG!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

Before Trump came out against the bill, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history” and said it included an array of policies “long championed” by Trump.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15, 2025. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Trump political operative James Blair touted the legislation for including the president’s Wall Street investor ban, which he referred to as a “signature commitment.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has argued that Republicans will still promote the landmark housing bill ahead of November.

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“We’ll still celebrate it, but he’s trying to make a point, and I think he’s making it very effectively,” the speaker recently told reporters, referring to Trump. “And the fact that you all ask me every three steps down the hallway illustrates that he has achieved the desired objective, and that is to make SAVE America the number one thing, because if we don’t get that right, everybody’s concerned about what happens next.”

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