Trump pushes GOP on voting bill, demanding an end to most mail balloting
[March 10, 2026]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he won’t sign any
other legislation into law until Congress passes a strict
proof-of-citizenship voting bill that he says also must end Americans'
ability to vote by mail, a startling demand months before the midterm
elections.
Trump told House Republicans during their annual retreat at his golf
club in Florida that he doesn't think they will win elections unless
voting laws are toughened up to prevent fraud — even though mail ballots
are popular in many states and federal law already requires that voters
in national elections be U.S. citizens, with scant evidence that
noncitizens ever try to vote.
The president wants to bolster the so-called SAVE America Act, which the
House has already approved, and he pressed the Senate to push past its
filibuster rules to send it to his desk. Voting experts have said the
bill could disenfranchise some 20 million American voters who don't have
birth certificates or other documents readily available, a number that
would likely swell with the additional ban on mail balloting that Trump
is demanding.
“I'm not going to sign anything until this is approved,” Trump said,
calling it his No. 1 priority.
“It'll guarantee the midterms,” he said. “If you don't get it, big
trouble.”
Voting rights groups sound alarms
The president’s determination to impose election changes has sounded
alarms from voting rights groups as the Trump administration reaches
deep into the realm of the states, which, under the Constitution, are in
charge of election ballots and procedures in the U.S.
It also comes as his Republican Party, which narrowly controls Congress,
faces headwinds this fall, its majorities at risk. Lawmakers have other
priorities, including the more immediate need to fund the Department of
Homeland Security as airport workers and others are going without
paychecks amid the fight in Congress over the agency's immigration and
deportation operations.
Democrats largely oppose Trump's efforts to seize more control over
elections, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump's
demands would gridlock the chamber.
“This is what he does — he’s a thug, he’s a bully,” said Schumer of New
York.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is close with Trump, appeared alongside
the president on the stage with other GOP leaders applauding the bill.
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said using the so-called
“talking filibuster” to pass the voting bill, as Trump and others
propose, isn't as easy as it seems.
“We can’t find a piece of legislation in history that’s been passed that
way,” Thune told reporters.
Trump has said even if it takes six months, he wants the bill approved
before any others will be signed into law.
Trump's grievances over his 2020 defeat
The president continues to claim that he was not the loser in the 2020
election and his Justice Department is digging into his concerns. The
FBI took the highly unusual move of seizing ballots and elections
materials in Georgia and, most recently, in Arizona.
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President Donald Trump gestures as Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and
House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., applaud at the Republican Members
Issues Conference, Monday, March 9, 2026, at Trump National Doral
Miami in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Trump wants the GOP-led Congress to build on the Safeguarding
American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, with a new package,
which he calls the “best of Trump.”
Already, the bill, as approved by the House, would require voters to
present proof of citizenship with a passport or birth certificate
when they register to vote. They would also have to show a photo ID
when they cast ballots, as many states already require.
Trump would add one main provision: to ban mail-in ballots, which
are used by many states nationwide. He would make exceptions for
voters who are disabled, in the military, or in other situations.
The president believes mail-in ballots are fraudulent, but voting
groups have long championed the practice as helping to make it
easier for Americans to vote.
The president also wants to tack on two unrelated provisions around
transgender rights issues — one that would ban those born as men
from playing in women’s sports and another to block sex reassignment
surgeries on some minors.
Trump also mentioned the possibility of adding an unrelated foreign
surveillance bill, known as FISA, which is up for an extension and
is often a difficult political matter in Congress.
“Let’s go for the gold,” he told the House Republicans at his resort
in Doral.
A coalition of Trump supporters has been pushing versions of the
SAVE America Act, with its proof of citizenship provisions a
longtime goal of the president's MAGA coalition. Trump also warned
the House GOP that their existing version of the bill is inadequate.
“We're not going to sign a watered-down version,” he said.
GOP senators mixed over filibuster
Republican senators plan to discuss how to move forward at their own
private meetings this week. So far, there is no consensus, with some
wanting to use a talking filibuster to pass the voting bill and
others strongly against.
Thune has warned that opening the Senate to endless debate, as would
happen under the talking filibuster proposal, would also open the
floor to endless amendments that could change the bill in ways that
could divide the Republicans.
But other senators say the time has come to force the issue, and
push past Democrats who oppose the bill.
___
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Steven Sloan in
Doral, Florida, contributed to this report.
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