Trump doubles down on calls to shut down government if GOP can’t pass stopgap with election security

Former President Donald Trump renewed his demand for Republicans to shut down the government if they can’t pass House Speaker Mike Johnson’s temporary funding bill that includes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.

The House will vote on Mr. Johnson’s six-month stopgap bill paired with the SAVE Act Wednesday evening, but it is unlikely to pass because of dissent within the GOP and almost the entire Democratic side of the House opposed to the partisan proposal.

“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “Democrats are registering Illegal Voters by the TENS OF THOUSANDS, as we speak - They will be voting in the 2024 Presidential Election, and they shouldn’t be allowed to.”

Mr. Trump first made the demand last week, and Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, ended up pulling the bill from consideration because of a lack of support.

The speaker has not disagreed with Mr. Trump’s sentiment that the SAVE Act is crucial to pass, but has been more cautious than the former president about pushing for an all-or-nothing play that could result in a politically costly partial government shutdown ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Mr. Johnson noted that he and Mr. Trump discussed his game plan over the weekend when the speaker visited the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

“We built a consensus on the plan,” Mr. Johnson said. “We all believe that election security is of preeminent importance right now.”

Some Republicans oppose the stopgap plan for a variety of reasons; some believe that attaching the SAVE Act is nothing more than a political messaging ploy, while others dislike that the bill would keep military spending flat until March 2025.

More fiscally conservative lawmakers dislike continuing resolutions in general and have vowed never to vote for one.

The House already passed the SAVE Act in July, but so far, the Democratic-led Senate has not taken up the bill, and the White House has threatened to veto it.