Trump says he won't sign housing bill, which would become law automatically

President Donald Trump on Friday said he will not sign a bipartisan housing bill that Congress passed last month, in protest of Republicans' failure to pass a controversial election measure.

But the housing affordability bill, dubbed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act , is nevertheless set to become law automatically on Saturday — unless Trump vetoes it.

The U.S. Constitution says that if the president does not return a bill within 10 days of receiving it, the bill "shall be a Law," as if he had signed it. The White House, when asked if Trump would veto the bill, referred CNBC to the president's Truth Social post saying he would not sign it.

Trump has pushed his GOP allies to make the election bill, called the SAVE America Act, their top legislative priority before the November midterms, when Democrats hope to retake at least one chamber of Congress. The bill purports to cut down on non-citizens voting in U.S. elections, even though that is already federally illegal and happens rarely , among other provisions.

Trump has previously suggested he will refuse to sign other bills until the election legislation becomes law, and last month abruptly canceled a scheduled signing ceremony for the housing bill on those grounds.

In his Truth Social post , Trump wrote, "I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT."

"THE SAVE AMERICA ACT'S non-passage is CRAZY, and a serious threat to any politician who votes against it!" Trump wrote. He also claimed that the bill has broad support from Americans, despite polls that have shown otherwise.

The president also repeated his demand for Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster rules — which require 60 votes to pass most legislation instead of a 51-vote majority — in order to pass the election bill and other GOP priorities.

The Senate's Republican leaders, who have long defended the filibuster, have so far rebuffed Trump's demands to ditch the procedural rules. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., last month said Republicans do not currently have the votes to eliminate the filibuster and ram through the SAVE America Act.

Democrats, who have centered their political messaging around affordability ahead of the midterms, pounced on Trump's initial refusal to sign the housing bill as proof of his indifference to Americans' cost-of-living concerns.

Days after that cancellation, Trump called the housing bill "a big yawn" compared to the SAVE America Act.

Trump's Friday morning announcement that he would not sign the housing bill at all spurred fresh accusations that the president, who reported making more than $2.2 billion in income last year, does not care about housing costs.

"Republicans would rather make it harder to vote than easier to afford a home. When people show you who they are, believe them," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote in an X post responding to Trump.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo, wrote on X , "The rising cost of mortgages and rent are hitting Americans hard. Yet Trump refuses to act."

Trump's announcement came one day after the National Association of Realtors reported that home prices last month rose to the highest level on record .

The median price of an existing home sold in June was $440,600, an increase of 1.8% from the year before, according to the association's report.

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