If the cryptocurrency industry achieves its top priority of getting its market structure legislation passed by the US Senate and onto President Donald Trump’s desk, he may not sign it if he sticks to the threats he has been making to withhold his signature from any other legislation ahead of the election bill.
Trump, in the midst of managing a US war against Iran, has paid close 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 voting in the United States, including identification requirements, demands for proof of citizenship and strict limits on mail-in ballots that would be expected to reduce voter rolls.
“It will guarantee the midterm elections,” Trump said in remarks Monday at a conference of Republican congressmen in Florida. “I’m willing to say I’m not going to sign anything until this is approved.”
He acknowledged that the effort – a new version of the previous Safeguarding American Voters’ Eligibility (SAVE) Act that already passed the House – will struggle in the Senate, where he suggested there are four or five Republican lawmakers who are not on board. In addition to voter requirements, the bill would also focus on banning transgender athletes from women’s sports and gender-affirming surgery 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 was cheated in the election.
Trump argued that the law would ensure Republican power in the United States for half a century.
“They’re going to win the midterm elections at levels you wouldn’t even believe,” Trump told the Republican audience. The Republican Party is widely expected to lose ground in November’s congressional midterm elections, including a possible loss of the majority in the House of Representatives, something that current bets on the Polymarket prediction market put at an 85% probability. “You’re going to win every election for a long time until someone really messes things up, and hopefully that doesn’t happen.”
But the president has also been a major driver of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which has been the crypto industry’s main policy goal. His new stance that he will not pass other bills before his voter ID effort casts a shadow over the digital assets push, which is working toward a long-awaited passage by the Senate Banking Committee.
Negotiation over the market structure bill has been difficult, but crypto experts have remained hopeful that talks can find enough common ground as soon as this week to schedule a hearing to move it through committee. The legislation has already advanced through the Senate Agriculture Committee, so if it passes the banking panel, a final version would need to be combined for a full Senate vote. Assuming the House passed it, because it had already passed a similar bill last year, the legislation would land on Trump’s desk.
Now the crypto sector has to wonder how serious the president was in refusing to sign anything, even a digital assets bill that he demanded be quickly sent to his desk. Establishing a pro-crypto regulatory system in the US has been a major issue for the Trump White House, so a passage of the Clarity Act will test whether Trump can force action on SAVE while also getting his crypto project done.
