'Cry harder': Ted Lieu mocks Trump after housing bill becomes law without his signature

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) is not known to go easy on the Trump administration, and he burnished those credentials on Saturday by celebrating the bipartisan housing bill's enactment into law. "And the very badly written Save Act is not law, and never will be. Trump's protest became a whimper. He was afraid his veto would have been overridden. TACO TACO TACO Welcome to the lame duck presidency," he wrote on X.

The 57-year-old's post came in the wake of President Donald Trump's refusal to sign the bill on Friday, protesting Congress's failure to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, touted as the most significant federal housing measure in 30 years, was set to become law at midnight despite Trump withholding his signature, as Congress was in session and the president's review window had come to an end.

In a long-winded Truth Social post, Trump censured Republican lawmakers, calling out their inability to break a Senate filibuster, suggesting it will haunt the GOP in the future. "...is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, which is polling at 97% with the Republican Party, and very high with the non-politician Dumocrats," the President wrote, adding, "The title of DUMB will revert to the Republicans who allowed this horrible calamity to happen to our Party, and our Nation, itself!"

Trump first signaled his displeasure over the stalled SAVE America Act two weeks ago, when he canceled a planned signing ceremony for the housing bill. The bill cleared the Senate 85-5 and the House by an equally lopsided margin. It seeks to lower housing costs through several measures, including limiting Wall Street investors from gobbling up houses, streamlining construction, and removing unnecessary red tape around permits.

In his second term, Trump has made passing the SAVE America Act a central plank of his agenda, arguing it's a matter of national security that the country desperately needs to ensure free and fair elections. The Act would mandate citizenship proof to register to vote in federal elections, making the process significantly stricter than it is now. A Senate amendment backed by Trump allies would also largely eliminate mail-in voting, with exceptions for illness, disability, military service, or travel.

The House has passed versions of the act multiple times, but efforts to pass the bill in the Senate have gone nowhere, since it requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster given its substantial nature. But House Speaker Mike Johnson is confident he has a trick up his sleeve to ensure its passage. "We're going to try one more time on a budget reconciliation bill, and I think that will be the way to get it through the Senate and finally to the president's desk," he told Fox News Sunday's Shannon Bream last week.