WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Thursday that he and President Donald Trump are “on exactly the same page” following their White House meeting to discuss a path forward on breaking a legislative impasse.
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“He wants to ensure that we stop any blockade in the House,” Johnson said of Trump. “Congress has work to do, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
The sit-down came a day after Trump suddenly canceled the signing ceremony for major housing legislation that passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. The president told Senate Republicans on Wednesday that they must first pass the SAVE America Act, legislation that would require voters to present additional ID and proof of citizenship to cast ballots, despite being repeatedly advised that the bill lacks the votes to pass.
The House speaker, who left Capitol Hill for his meeting at the White House just before 2 p.m. ET and was seen back on Capitol Hill shortly after 5 p.m., told reporters that he spent “a few hours” speaking with Trump.
Johnson needs the president’s support to break the deadlock in the House, where Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has been leading a group of Republican in preventing other legislation from coming to a floor vote until the SAVE Act is passed. One version of the election measure has passed the House, but it has stalled in the Senate.
Just before 5 p.m. Thursday, Trump called for an end to the legislative blockade by Luna and others, though he did not name her.
“House Republicans should unify, and stop voting down ‘Rules’ or, threatening to do so. Giving power to the Radical Left Dumocrats in the House to control what goes up for a Vote will make our outcomes worse, not better. No more grandstanding, please!” he posted on Truth Social.
Johnson, in his remarks to reporters, said “the majority party should never be voting down rules.”
“We got to be able to move forward on legislation and continue the America First agenda,” he continued.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s meeting with Johnson.
Johnson repeatedly said Wednesday that Republicans must rely on the partisan reconciliation process to address the SAVE America Act because it would allow them to pass it in the Senate with only a simple majority in a chamber where they hold a 53-47 advantage. But there is skepticism that such a plan would work, even from Luna and other supporters of the SAVE America Act.
Johnson defended the president’s unexpected decision to throw the housing bill into limbo, saying that Trump was making a “point” by canceling the signing ceremony at the last minute.
“This is how the process plays out. Sometimes it’s slow, it’s a grind, it’s a deliberative legislative body, that’s what happens. So keep the faith, we’re going to get it all done,” Johnson said Wednesday, when he also predicted that the president would ultimately sign the housing measure within the 10-day window the Constitution sets for the president to sign bills before they automatically become law.
“The president, I believe, is going to sign that bill,” he told reporters.
After his meeting with Trump, Johnson said that he would be “transmitting the housing bill to the White House.”
In support of Trump’s effort to pass the SAVE America Act, Luna has been leading a group of Republicans in blocking any legislation from being voted on in the House until Congress passes the election overhaul bill. GOP leaders said Thursday they were canceling votes that had been scheduled for Friday.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump met behind closed doors at the Capitol with Senate Republicans, who emerged saying that the president stressed the need to pass the SAVE America Act.
“The president had one, one clear message: SAVE America Act, SAVE America Act, SAVE America Act,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said. “That election integrity is so important to the, to this republic that we need to pass that bill, and everything else pales in comparison to that.”
Marshall added, “What he said is that the SAVE America Act is exponentially more important than the housing bill.”
In March, Trump vowed not to sign any legislation until Congress passed the SAVE America Act, though he has signed 22 bills into law since then.
