Senators Leave With Trump's Demand Unmet

Senators left the Capitol in the predawn hours Saturday, ending for now a bitter standoff over President Trump's demands that they stay in session to pass a proof-of-citizenship voting bill before the summer recess. While Republicans wrapped up many priorities in their overnight votes, the AP reports, Trump's SAVE America Act was not among them. Instead, GOP senators who had brought the chamber to a standstill spoke to Trump late in the evening about an alternative: They would try again to approve elements of the voting bill as part of a broader GOP budget package to fund the Iran war and replenish the Pentagon when they return in September.

"Obviously, with the president at his direction, this is what he wants to do," said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the budget committee chairman, flanked by Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Rick Scott after their phone call with the president. The sudden wind-down after weeks of Trump ramping up his demands shows just how deeply the president is able to reach into the halls of Congress to set the agenda or disrupt it, the executive directing the affairs of the legislative branch. While Trump is often considered the de facto speaker of the House, he is invariably trying his hand at mastering the Senate.

Trump had poked and prodded Senate Majority Leader John Thune to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that does not have enough support from the Republicans who hold majority power, let alone the Democrats whose votes would be needed to advance it in the Senate. Over months, a New York Times analysis points out, Thune used words like "math" and "reality" to suggest Trump wasn't grasping the situation as the president angrily demanded Senate action. Led by Lee, a growing group of senators was refusing to adjourn for the summer break without passing Trump's priority voting bill, per the AP. But near daybreak, when the Senate did call for the vote to adjourn, the hearty nos of Lee and others were overruled on a simple voice vote. The motion to adjourn was adopted.