What We’re Covering Today
Trump Administration Live Updates: President Cancels Plans to Sign Housing Bill
"Housing Bill: President Trump abruptly canceled his plans to sign a bipartisan housing bill on Wednesday, one that Republicans and Democrats had been eager to promote on the campaign trail as evidence they were working to bring down costs for voters. Mr. Trump said he would not sign it until lawmakers passed a law imposing new restrictions on voter identification and mail-in ballots, although it could become law without his signature. Read more ›
NATO Meeting: Mr. Trump is scheduled to meet with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, at the White House. Mr. Trump has criticized the alliance for not supporting his war in Iran, and the U.S. military plans to reduce by a third the number of fighter jets it provides to NATO during an emergency.
Iran: Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the leader of the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday at the start of a trip to the Middle East, as he seeks to reassure Persian Gulf allies about the preliminary deal the United States reached with Iran that could pave the way to a lasting peace agreement. Read more ›
President Trump abruptly canceled his plans on Wednesday to sign a bipartisan bill aimed at improving housing affordability, one that Democrats and Republicans alike had been eager to promote on the campaign trail as evidence they were working to try to bring down costs.
Mr. Trump said in a social media post that he would not sign the bill until Congress passed a law that would impose new restrictions on voter identification and mail-in voting, known as the Save America Act. But Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, has said that Republicans did not have the votes required.
In an appearance on CNBC, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, sharply criticized the president for the last-minute decision to cancel the signing of the housing bill.
“This just doesn’t make any sense, other than whatever it is he wants to do is a complete indifference to the cost squeeze on American families and to genuine efforts to do something about it,” she said. “You know, he could be over here trying to claim a victory lap, and instead he’s saying no, no, he doesn’t want anything to do with it.”
Shamus Roller, the chief executive of the National Housing Law Project, was just waking up at his home in San Francisco when he heard that President Trump had canceled the signing ceremony for the bipartisan housing bill. “Lots of people were starting to celebrate yesterday,” he said. “But I think the way this went down really shows the president’s contempt for Congress and for the time that they put into this.”
House Democratic leaders on Wednesday described President Trump’s decision to cancel the signing ceremony for the bipartisan housing bill as erratic behavior unfit for a president.
“All of a sudden, Donald Trump decides he’s not coming to sign the bill,” Representative Ted Lieu, the House Democratic vice chair, said at a news conference. “Well, why is that? Did he wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”
Affordable housing leaders were apoplectic at the news that the housing bill signing would not go ahead on Wednesday. Some had received invitations to the bill signing late last night and were en route to the Capitol when they learned that the president had canceled the event.
Though President Trump has said he would not sign the housing bill, it can still become law without his signature. If Congress is in session, legislation can generally become law 10 days after a bill is enrolled and presented to the president.
When the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, met with President Trump in January, the alliance seemed to be teetering. Mr. Trump had vowed to seize Greenland from Denmark and refused to rule out using force to do so.
This unprecedented threat, by one NATO ally against another, imperiled the alliance’s very existence.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, suggested that Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City would have to repair some ties on Capitol Hill after backing challengers who defeated two Democratic incumbents in primary elections on Tuesday.
“Listen,” he said, “the mayor and I agreed to strongly disagree about some endorsements, and he’s got work to do in terms of the conversations that he’s going to have with members of Congress moving forward.” Jeffries, however, said his own relationship with the mayor was “a very good one.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a New Yorker and the House Democratic leader, said he did not believe that Republicans would be successful in trying to damage Democrats in the midterms by tying them to Mayor Zohran Mamdani since President Trump has embraced him as well.
“Donald Trump has a working relationship with the mayor of the city of New York, and he’s made that publicly and explicitly clear to America not once, but twice in the Oval Office,” Jeffries said on Capitol Hill.
Representative Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat who serves in House leadership, sidestepped questions about Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City and progressives’ successful primary challenges on Tuesday.
“The mayor doesn’t get a vote in the Democratic caucus, the members who are elected get those votes,” Aguilar said. “We’re working with the members that New York elects to serve in the Democratic caucus.”
David Steiner, the postmaster general, said at a hearing before the Senate on Wednesday that if a proposed mail ballot rule goes into effect, the Postal Service would refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that do not turn over sensitive voter data to the federal government. The proposed rule is consistent with President Trump’s executive orderrestricting mail ballots. That order faces multiple legal challenges.
Hours before he was set to come to the Capitol to sign a bipartisan housing bill that Republicans are celebrating as critical to addressing Americans’ affordability concerns, President Trump dismissed it as “of minor importance” relative to a voter identification bill he had been pressing the Senate to pass.
In a social media post, Trump said the housing bill, which passed both chambers overwhelmingly, “pales in comparison” to the elections legislation. “Get the bad Republicans to approve it or, better yet, Terminate the Filibuster and approve it, AND EVERYTHING ELSE REPUBLICANS HAVE EVER DREAMED OF,” he said.
President Trump may no longer be a New York voter, but he has not given up a lifelong interest in the state’s political affairs. So on Tuesday night, he was keeping close tabs on the primary results and seizing on the outcome to brand the democratic socialist victors as “communists.”
“America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!” he wrote on social media just after 2:30 on Wednesday morning.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Persian Gulf leaders on Wednesday, seeking to reassure allies about a preliminary U.S.-Iran deal that has left some of their most pressing concerns unresolved.
As the diplomatic trip got underway, President Trump said on social media that Iran had assured Washington it was neither seeking nor collecting tolls from ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and gas shipping route for most Gulf countries. The issue is expected to be high on the agenda during Mr. Rubio’s meetings with Gulf leaders this week."
No comments:
Post a Comment