Trump to Senate GOP: Without SAVE America, “I Will Be the Last Republican President”

President Trump said on the Lt. Dan Podcast on Wednesday that if the Senate does not pass the SAVE America Act before the midterms, he will be the last Republican president. “I’ll be the last — think of it, I will be the last Republican president if that happens,” he told Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. “And you’ll never have a Republican president again.” He said a Democratic Congress would end the filibuster, add D.C. and Puerto Rico as states, and create “four more senators, and you’ll have eight to ten more Congresspeople.” Patrick called that “not hyperbole.” Trump replied that it would be “an unforced error because you can stop it.” He said photo ID and proof of place of birth would be enough that “Republicans will not lose for decades.” The interview circulated Thursday on conservative outlets as the Senate calendar tightened toward Nov. 3.

The House has passed the SAVE America Act more than once. The Senate version would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections, photo identification to vote, and restrict no-excuse mail ballots to illness, disability, military service, and travel. Democrats oppose the bill as unnecessary. Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis, and Mitch McConnell — have blocked attaching it to other packages. Majority Leader John Thune has said the conference does not have 60 votes and does not have the votes to eliminate the legislative filibuster. Trump has repeatedly told Thune to move the House-passed bill or “terminate the filibuster.” Earlier Truth Social posts used the same “last Republican president” line and said Democrats would add states and expand the Court if they retake power.

The push sits alongside the fight over mail ballots. After the Supreme Court lifted an earlier injunction, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston issued a new short-term block on the Postal Service rule that would require states to submit mail-voter lists and use specified barcoded envelopes. First mail ballots in some states go out this month. Trump has said the SAVE Act is the statutory path for citizenship checks and limits on mail voting that executive orders and USPS rules cannot finish alone. The Senate is back from August recess. Reconciliation and a talking filibuster remain the two routes Republicans have discussed; Thune has said neither currently has the votes.