Trump faces rural revolt over his top legislative priority

President Donald Trump's push for his top congressional priority is running into resistance not from Democrats, but from within his own party's rural wing.

The 80-year-old president wants an expanded SAVE America Act to include sweeping mail-voting restrictions alongside provisions targeting transgender athletes and gender-affirming care for minors, but that effort has stalled because House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) doesn't have the votes to pass Trump's preferred version, reported Politico.

“There are other states that do it well, and without a problem,” Johnson said. “Our concerns are with the handful, five or six blue states, who abuse this, and California is the avatar for this, because it is so ridiculous.”

Johnson has instead fallen back on a narrower February bill focused on proof-of-citizenship requirements, leaving most election administration to the states.

The holdup traces to Republicans representing sparsely populated states, where mail voting isn't a partisan talking point but a practical necessity. Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-ND), a supporter of election reform broadly, warned that a near-total ban would create real problems back home.

"We're a rural state," she said. "I understand the concerns about mail-in voting … but I think the solution that I'm in favor of is restricting it and creating these commonsense reforms for it."

Republican Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) echoed the sentiment, arguing that absentee voting simply needs structure rather than elimination — commonsense safeguards like clear postmark deadlines, not a wholesale ban.

Complicating matters further, the Supreme Court recently struck down Trump's attempt to restrict mail-ballot counting by executive order, a ruling some Republicans welcomed as vindication that mail voting isn't inherently corrupt, as Trump has claimed.

“It says mail-in voting in and of itself is not evil," Amodei said. "There ought to be some mechanism for you to do that.”

In the Senate, the effort is similarly stuck. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) reportedly told colleagues — as well as the president directly — that while he personally favors the expanded provisions, there isn't consensus within the Senate GOP to pass them, pointing instead toward procedural tactics on a slimmed-down bill.