If the crypto industry makes its top priority of getting its market structure legislation through the US Senate and onto President Donald Trump’s desk, he may not sign it if he sticks to threats he has made to withhold his signature from any other legislation before the election.
Trump, in the midst of managing a US war with Iran, has devoted considerable attention to the SAVE America Act, which he has declared his top priority in Congress. The proposed legislation would be designed to impose new obstacles to American voting, including identification requirements, proof-of-citizenship requirements and strict limits on mail-in ballots that are expected to thin voter rolls.
“It will guarantee the midterms,” Trump said in Monday’s remarks at a conference of congressional Republicans in Florida. “I’m willing to just say I’m not going to sign anything until this is approved.”
He acknowledged that the effort — a new version of the former Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act that has already passed the House — will have a difficult time in the Senate, where he suggested there are four or five Republican lawmakers who are not on board. In addition to the voter requirements, the bill would also focus on banning transgender athletes in women’s sports and gender-affirming surgeries for children.
Democrats criticize the voter ID effort as voter suppression written to address a problem of voter fraud for which there is no evidence, despite the president’s claims that he has been cheated in elections.
Trump claimed the action would secure Republican power in the United States for half a century.
“You’re going to win the midterms at levels you wouldn’t even believe,” Trump told the Republican crowd. The GOP is widely expected to lose ground in November’s congressional terms, including a potential loss of the House majority, which current betting on prediction market Polymarket puts at 85% probability. “You’re going to win every election for a long time until someone really screws things up, and hopefully that won’t happen.”
But the president has also been a key driver behind the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which has been the top political goal of the crypto industry. His new stance that he won’t approve other bills before his voter ID push casts a shadow over the digital asset push, which is working toward long-awaited approval by the Senate Banking Committee.
Negotiations on the market structure bill have been difficult, but crypto insiders have maintained hope that the talks could find enough common ground as early as this week to have a hearing scheduled to move it through committee. The legislation has already made its way through the Senate Agriculture Committee, so if it makes it through the banking panel, a final version must be put together for a vote in the overall Senate. Assuming the House would sign on, because it had already approved a similar bill last year, the legislation would then reach Trump’s desk.
Now the crypto sector has to wonder how serious the president was in refusing to sign anything, even a digital asset bill, which he has demanded be sent to his desk quickly. Establishing a pro-crypto regulatory system in the US has been among the top issues for the Trump White House, so passage of the Clarity Act will test whether Trump can force action on SAVE while still getting his crypto project done.
