Podbit · The Ben Shapiro Show
Trump canceled the signing ceremony for the bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act, demanding Congress pass the SAVE Act — which requires documentary citizenship proof to register to vote — as a condition. Shapiro calls it a political own goal: why sacrifice a winnable affordability narrative for a fight you don't have the votes to win?
Where this was said
At 37:20 · chapter starts 34:30
The episode pivots to domestic legislative drama: Trump cancels the signing of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act — bipartisan legislation to reduce federal regulations, streamline environmental reviews, and expand manufactured housing financing — and says he won't sign it until Congress passes the SAVE Act. Shapiro is sympathetic to the SAVE Act's provisions (documentary citizenship proof for voter registration, photo ID requirements, in-person registration only) but brutal on the political logic. The housing bill has both good and bad elements — he criticizes the corporate investor ban on single-family home purchases as economically illiterate — but walking away from a signing ceremony that could demonstrate affordability results is, he argues, a self-inflicted wound. Trump, in a clip, dismisses the housing bill and says it's 'all about the interest rate.' Shapiro notes that rates are unlikely to fall given current inflation. Speaker Johnson offers a workaround: inserting the SAVE Act into Reconciliation 3.0.
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