President Donald Trump canceled a housing bill signing and declared a "national emergency" as he ramps up pressure on Congress to pass election legislation.
President Donald Trump canceled plans to sign a bipartisan bill on Wednesday afternoon aimed at lowering housing costs and increasing supply, until Congress approves voting restrictions. Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall reports from the White House. (Source: Bloomberg)
Ever since the overthrow of the Fulgencio Bautista regime in 1959, Cuba has been shunned by the United States. Now, following the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and months of U.S. military strikes against Iran, President Donald Trump is indicating that a U.S military invasion of Cuba is possible. But conservative Washington Post columnist George Will fears that Trump could make a bad situation in Cuba even worse."After beginning the war, but before his conduct of it turned it into an embarrassment, President Donald Trump said: 'On the way back' from Iran, 'we will be taking over' Cuba 'almost immediately,'" Will explains. "Now, humiliated and bewildered, he hungers for a success before this autumn's elections."The 84-year-old Will, who was a scathing critic of the late Fidel Castro, is no fan of the communist regime in Cuba — which has been suffering from a terrible economy, a crumbling infrastructure, and frequent blackouts. But he fears that if Trump does move forward with a U.S. military invasion of Cuba, things will only become more dire for the troubled island nation."Communist Cuba, a threadbare museum of Marxism, has always attracted tyranny tourists, leftist pilgrims eager to experience, briefly, applied socialism," Will argues in the Post. "The only good its evil ever produced is 'Against All Hope,' Armando Valladares' magnificent 1986 memoir of 22 years as a political prisoner. Beatings were never perfunctory, always ferocious and imaginatively cruel.… Other than those pilgrims, no one believes the Havana regime has a shred of legitimacy. What should be done?"The Never Trump conservative continues, "For decades, Communist Cuba, a mendicant nation prickly about its revolutionary dignity, depended on subsidies from the Soviet Union, then on bartered oil from Venezuela. Now, it experiences electricity blackouts sometimes lasting 22 hours a day. Some airlines have stopped serving Havana because fuel is scarce for return trips. Tourism has evaporated." But Will emphasizes that while Cuba's situation is dire, Trump doesn't appear to have a coherent game plan."In January," Will observes, "Trump said, 'Cuba is ready to fall.' Into what? Has Trump thought through his vow to 'take care' of Cuba with a 'friendly takeover' during 'a little brief stopover'? Before he skittered away from demanding Iran's 'unconditional surrender,' he jovially said of Cuba: A U.S. aircraft carrier will 'stop about 100 yards offshore, and they'll say: Thank you very much. We give up.' Such a cutup. Our Metternich from Midtown Manhattan is not intimidated by the aphorism that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday said he is aiming to push the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act through a third budget reconciliation bill. Johnson’s remarks came shortly after President Trump canceled a signing ceremony for a sweeping bipartisan housing package, saying he won’t sign the legislation until the Senate passes the voter…
In an unprecedented move, President Donald Trump vowed Wednesday to block an affordable housing bill Congress had given final passage to the night before, sparking panic and shock from onlookers across the political spectrum.“We saw glimpses of this during Trump’s first administration, but never in my lifetime have I seen a president so deliberately attempt to lose majorities for his own party,” a senior Senate GOP staffer told Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio, speaking on the condition of anonymity.In a bipartisan fashion, the House voted 358-32 to pass the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, sending it to the president’s desk for final approval. Trump was expected to sign the bill on Wednesday but abruptly cancelled the ceremony in a bid to force Republicans to eliminate the filibuster – a Senate rule that allows lawmakers to block bills short of 60 votes – and pass his controversial voter ID bill known as the SAVE Act.“Trump refuses to sign a bill that would make housing cheaper for you because [he’d] rather make voting harder for you!” wrote Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL) in a social media post on X.Described by critics as a form of “voter suppression,” the SAVE Act would require voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, posing hurdles for the 52% of voters who don’t possess a passport and the 11% who don’t have access to their birth certificate. The bill would disproportionately affect voters with lower incomes, who make up a significant share of Democratic Party voters.“Trump is delaying rare bipartisan progress of voters’ number one issue to chase the never-gonna-happen dreams of a small number of conservative senators,” wrote Kevin Robillard, senior politics editor for the HuffPost, in a social media post on X.Carter Christensen, the communications strategy manager for the Democratic Party fundraising platform ActBlue, warned that Trump’s latest move could be a dire indicator of things to come.“He’s prepping to challenge the midterms y’all!” Christensen wrote in a social media post on X.Jonathan Berk, a housing accessibility advocate and founder of re:Main, an organization that advocates for improved housing accessibility, lamented the impact Trump’s threat could pose for millions of Americans.“One of the most consequential housing reforms to emerge from Washington in decades is now on hold,” Berk wrote.Senior Senate GOP aide on Trump abruptly canceling signing ceremony for housing bill:“We saw glimpses of this during Trump’s first administration, but never in my lifetime have I seen a president so deliberately attempt to lose majorities for his own party.”— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) June 24, 2026
Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander won the Democrat primary for New York’s 10th Congressional District on Tuesday, defeating two-term incumbent Rep. The post Brad Lander Declares Goal to ‘Vanquish Trump’s Fascism’ and ‘Abolish ICE’ in Victory Speech After Ousting NY Rep. Dan Goldman (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
A last-minute Donald Trump decision to cancel the signing ceremony for a popular housing bill that sailed through both chambers of Congress with unusual bipartisan support is yet another blow to Republicans who have been looking for any good news as they face a midterm blowout.Mid-Wednesday morning, the president took to his Truth Social platform and wrote, “Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”Breaking the news on MS NOW as it happened, host Ali Vitali pointed out the president just pulled the rug out from under his own party that has little to brag about to voters.“Now the President is dashing Republican hopes of having a new bill on affordability to run on. And also putting them again in a position where they're not going to pass this [SAVE AMERICA] bill,” she told her panel. “If you are a traditional, normal President, your entire job at this moment in time is to get those Republican Senators re-elected,” Puck White House correspondent Abby Livingston added. “And yet here on Earth, there seems to be the only thing more fun than tormenting Democrats right now seems to be tormenting Senate Republicans and he is making their lives actively harder,” she elaborated. “"He has metaphorically already shot the hostage in this situation, and so you have just this,” she continued. “This is going to land on him in six months if he loses the Senate because he's not going to be able to get confirmations through, and this is all going to come to a head.” - YouTube youtu.be
Today marks the fourth anniversary of President Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court ending the federal right to abortion with the Dobbsv. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Since then, more people have suffered and died because of restrictive anti-abortion laws, which have banned some or all abortion in 20 states. To mark the anniversary, Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, released the following statement: “Four years after President Trump’s handpicked Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion, their decision continues to devastate people across the country. With each passing day, more people are hurt, more families are broken, and more people’s lives are upended. Anti-abortion rights lawmakers continue to weaponize the Court’s decision to make it harder for everyone, everywhere to get the care they need. On this anniversary, it’s clearer than ever that it’s on all of us to fight back against an unpopular political agenda that has blocked people’s health, lives, and freedoms.”President Trump and his backers in Congress have spent their time in office making it harder for everyone, everywhere to get lifesaving reproductive health care, including abortion. Last July, they passed a law that “defunded” Planned Parenthood for one year by attempting to bar patients from using their Medicaid insurance at Planned Parenthood health centers. The harm they’ve caused is clear: Since the start of the Trump-Vance administration more than 50 Planned Parenthood health centers have been forced to close. More than 20 of those closures came after President Trump signed the law “defunding” Planned Parenthood.A Senate report examining the harm of “defunding” Planned Parenthood showed that in the six months since the “defunding” of Planned Parenthood took effect, fewer people have been able to get reproductive care at Planned Parenthood health centers in 2025 compared to the same period in 2024: The number of breast exam visits fell by 25% in Dec., increasing the risk of delayed breast cancer detection and avoidable, more serious illness.Visits for IUDs and other long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) dropped by 41% in Nov. and 36% in Dec.– the steepest decline across all services measured.STI testing declined by 11% in Nov. and 4% in Dec., limiting early diagnosis and treatment and increasing preventable spread and long-term health consequences.And there were 20% fewer visits for birth control pills in November. Now, House Republicans want to permanently “defund” Planned Parenthood because, where legal, Planned Parenthood health centers provide abortion.
President Trump cancelled Wednesday's planned signing of a landmark bipartisan housing bill, demanding Congress pass the unrelated SAVE America Act first.Why it matters: Trump has been angling for Congress to pass the voting bill for months, and previously threatened to withhold his signature on any other legislation until lawmakers passed it. What they're saying: "Today's Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency," Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday morning. Zoom out: The president's decision came as House GOP leaders were touting the housing bill's attributes during their weekly press conference. Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) praised the bipartisan effort to pass the bill — alongside Trump's support — mere minutes before the president's post. "Let's show the American people what legislating looks like," French said. "Let's show the American people how you bring together and do something on a bicameral basis, and we did that, and we did that in conjunction with President Trump and his priorities." The Capitol's Statuary Hall, set up and ready for Trump to sign the housing bill. Photo: Stef Kight/Axios.The intrigue: Shortly after Trump's post, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters he spoke with Trump on Wednesday morning and said the president still plans to sign the bill in the next 10 days."We're delaying this, as you know, 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, and we're going to go through this together."Johnson added that the SAVE Act is important because "[Democrats] do want to allow for cheating and fraud in the elections, because it is the only way that the Marxists can win."What we're watching: Trump is expected to put pressure on Senate Republicans to pass the SAVE Act during a lunch at the Capitol later today.Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and others have been adamant that they do not have enough votes to pass the bill — nor eliminate the filibuster.Thune was on the Senate floor when Trump announced the signing cancellation and told reporters, "At this point, I don't have any observations about it.Editors note: This story has been updated with additional information throughout.