Trump says he won’t sign housing bill that’s set to become law at midnight

By Adam Cancryn, Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will not sign a bipartisan housing bill in protest of Republicans’ inability to advance separate elections overhaul legislation, dealing a major political blow to vulnerable lawmakers in his own party.

The housing bill is set to become law at midnight even without Trump’s signature. But GOP leaders had originally hoped to tout the moment as a historic economic achievement ahead of midterm elections that are likely to be defined by Americans’ concerns over the cost of living.

Instead, the sweeping legislation will now advance with minimal fanfare from a president who has dismissed it as “a yawn” and “so unimportant” compared to the elections legislation, which includes voter ID and proof-of-citizenship measures.

“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president again called on Senate Republicans to end the filibuster to advance the elections legislation and other Republican priorities, warning that Democrats would do the same if they regain control of the chamber.

The decision punctuates a painful, weekslong episode for Republican lawmakers who devoted months to negotiating with Democrats over what would become the largest housing affordability bill in a generation — only to see their mercurial leader disavow it at the last minute over wholly separate frustrations.

It also underscores the deepening challenge facing the GOP just four months out from midterm elections expected to hinge on an affordability crisis that Trump has repeatedly downplayed in favor of focusing on his personal priorities.

“I’m not sure how holding this bill hostage is going to move this other bill,” Stephen Moore, an outside economic adviser to Trump, said in the run-up to the president’s decision. “I don’t know what the strategy is there.”

Democrats on Friday immediately seized on Trump’s decision not to sign the housing bill as evidence of his failure to prioritize affordability concerns.

“Donald Trump cares so little about bringing down YOUR housing costs that he’s refusing to sign the biggest housing bill in 30 years,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who played a central role in negotiating the legislation, wrote on X.

Republicans in June had initially planned to hold a high-profile signing ceremony for Trump on Capitol Hill. The bipartisan deal had passed overwhelmingly, handing GOP lawmakers a hard-fought economic victory viewed as critical to convincing voters that the party had a plan to address their cost-of-living woes.

But Trump, fuming over Senate Republicans’ resistance to prioritizing the effort to overhaul federal elections, abruptly canceled his appearance hours before the event. Senate GOP leaders have warned Trump that the elections legislation does not have anywhere close to the full support of the Republican conference, much less the 60 votes needed to pass it through the chamber.

The cancelled signing ceremony prompted a rush to convince Trump to back the bill, with House Speaker Mike Johnson trekking to the White House multiple times to sell him on its merits.

Johnson ultimately transmitted the bill after emerging from those meetings confident that Trump would not veto it outright, kickstarting a 10-day countdown for it to become law even without the president’s signature.

Still, Trump has since displayed little enthusiasm for legislation that Republican lawmakers and some White House officials saw as the centerpiece of the party’s affordability agenda.

After Johnson transmitted the bill, Trump said he remained undecided about signing it and dismissed its importance compared with his efforts to secure the voter ID legislation.

“Big deal,” he told reporters at the time. “It’s a yawn.”

Trump also repeatedly cast doubt on the bill’s merits, arguing that lower interest rates would do more to make housing available than any of the measures in the legislation, while questioning whether it made too many concessions to Democrats to win their support.

In his Truth Social post on Friday, Trump again declined to address the housing bill outside of his vow not to sign it — opting instead to direct another irate missive at the Republican lawmakers whose success in the midterm elections will determine whether he holds onto his congressional majority.

If the GOP fails to act on his elections legislation, Trump wrote, “The title of DUMB will revert to the Republicans who allowed this horrible calamity to happen to our Party, and our Nation, itself!”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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