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Trump says he ‘will not sign’ bipartisan housing bill, but doesn’t threaten veto either

President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on July 06, 2026 in Washington, DC. Trump is hosting a luncheon in the Rose Garden Club. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said in a social media post Friday morning that he “will not sign” the bipartisan housing reform package, which he abruptly placed into limbo last month after demanding that his unrelated signature election reform law be sent to his desk alongside it.

Trump said he won’t sign the housing bill “in PROTEST” over the Senate’s inability to pass the Save America Act.

The housing bill can still become law overnight without Trump’s signature.

If a president doesn’t sign a bill or veto it, it automatically becomes law after 10 days while Congress is in session, excluding Sundays. The housing bill was presented to Trump on June 29, and the 10-day clock began on June 30. If Trump issues a veto, Congress would need to attempt to override it by a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate.

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act aims to address the country’s housing shortage by increasing the supply of homes and overall homeownership by loosening regulations to encourage housing construction and by limiting Wall Street investors from buying homes that could go to families instead.

New data from the National Association of Realtors shows the median home price increased 1.8% in June from a year ago, and is now $440,600 — an all-time high.

The Senate voted 85-5 on passage of the housing measure on June 22 before the House approved the bill by a vote of 358-32 on June 23. Both totals represent sufficient support to overcome a potential presidential veto with a two-thirds majority in both chambers.

Even though the stage was set for the president to sign the bill in a rare ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, the bipartisan breakthrough did not last long, as Trump quickly announced he would not sign the bill unless lawmakers approve the SAVE America Act. 

The SAVE America Act would make significant election and voting reforms, including requiring photo ID at polling places and proof of citizenship before a person could register to vote. The legislation has been flatly rejected by Democrats and would require 60 votes to prevail in the Senate.

Trump has pushed Republicans in the Senate to eliminate or modify the filibuster to get the bill through, though Majority Leader John Thune has said Republicans don’t have the votes to do so.

Trump wrote in his social media post Friday that if Democrats “do not allow a positive Vote on SAVE AMERICA, TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and pass this, and every other Bill that true Republicans have ever dreamt of.”

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Rather than capitulating to the US, Iran toughens its demands over the vital Strait of Hormuz

(CNN) — The list of demands from Iran can’t have surprised the White House.Hardliners have been repeating the mantra on a daily basis: the limited agreement in the works with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz is not the same as reopening the vital waterway in the way Washington wants.For that, they say, “America must correct its behavior.”Tehran has now spelled out what means, laying out a series of conditions that appear to go beyond the memorandum of understanding which was agreed in June but later suspended amid US strikes on Iran, Iranian retaliation across the Middle East and a resurgence of attacks on shipping.On Saturday, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a highly influential figure in the Revolutionary Guards, reeled off a maximalist set of demands.That Iran is issuing such demands underlines the perception that Tehran believes it has the upper hand. CNN has reported on dwindling US munitions - something angrily denied by President Trump - and suggestions that his top general is looking for an “off-ramp” in the conflict.It is also likely that Iran has taken notice of how many times Trump has threatened major strikes before not following through on the threat.Zolghadr demanded the US lift its naval blockade and withdraw its military forces from around Iran.The US must also pay damages caused to Iran by the wars this year and in June last year (which was principally conducted by Israel), he said. And the US must lift sanctions and release, unconditionally, Iranian assets frozen abroad.The implication of Zolghadr’s statement was that these conditions must be fulfilled before or in tandem with concessions on the strait, which would be at odds with the formula set out in the memorandum of understanding.That held that sanctions would be fully removed once a final deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program was reached and envisaged a phased release of assets, in which the two sides “will mutually agree on the procedures related to the release of these funds.”Iran’s apparent new strategy, though, is not without risk.The fresh demands “narrows the options for the Trump administration,” according to the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, James Stavridis.“Iran is overplaying its hand and it appears the hardliners are in control. The likelihood of a deal in the immediate term is declining,” Stavridis posted on X Sunday.No US-Iran talks underwayThe Trump administration has not responded to the latest Iranian conditions.“What we’re really working through now is how you can actually set up a traffic scheme so that the ships that pass can pass through safely,” US Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on Saturday.But the current situation smacks of stalemate.Iranian officials, whether perceived as moderates or hardliners, are saying that renewed negotiations with the US are not in prospect.“As long as the United States has not addressed its violations of the memorandum of understanding and remedied those breaches, we see no possibility of restarting negotiations,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday.“We currently have no negotiations with America. Yes, there is an exchange of messages through intermediaries,” he added.Araghchi referred to the more limited and temporary arrangement for Hormuz being negotiated with Oman, which borders its southern shoreline.“I can say we are in the final stages, and the old routes that existed will be replaced with new routes,” he said, referring to how the thin traffic traveling through the strait is currently split between Iranian and Omani paths.“This, of course, does not mean the opening of the Strait of Hormuz,” Araghchi told reporters in Tehran, which was “subject to the fulfillment of a series of other conditions.”Other Iranian officials have indicated that an agreement with Oman would continue to give Iran considerable influence in the strait, which it did not enjoy before the war but which has become a red line as important as the nuclear issue for Tehran.Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said last week the arrangement reflects a new strategy for exercising “effective sovereignty” over the strait, while stressing that Iran does not intend to routinely close the waterway in peacetime.Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei cautioned last week that there could be a deal with Oman “provided that certain third parties do not obstruct the process” in a far from cryptic reference to the US.Amidst the uncertainty – and sporadic attacks on ships passing through the Strait – traffic remains very limited. An average of about a dozen vessels a day have transited in the past week, according to shipping data.That’s about one-tenth of the normal pre-war traffic.Already into its sixth month, the conflict between the US and Iran shows no sign of resolution - but has instead evolved into an unpredictable cycle of escalation and pause.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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