Invitations were sent. American flags lined the back of the red stage set in Statuary Hall. Bright spotlights lit the signing table donned with the presidential seal.
President Donald Trump so abruptly canceled what might have been the last major presidential signing ceremony of this Congress that it caught lawmakers, top aides and housing industry officials all completely by surprise.
Trump still has not signed the bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act, but it’s set to go into law anyway on Friday without his signature.
The axed signing ceremony delivered Trump’s punishment of lawmakers for failing to pass his bill to limit voting rights ahead of the midterms, even though the housing bill represents the most significant housing legislation since the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Trump doubled down on his decision not to sign the bill in a Truth Social post Friday morning.
“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,” Trump wrote. “THE SAVE AMERICA ACT’S non-passage is CRAZY, and a serious threat to any politician who votes against it!”
If nothing else, Trump’s decision to ax the signing ceremony, and his comments referring to the bill as a “yawn,” represent a missed opportunity for lawmakers and the president to demonstrate to Americans that they are addressing their affordability concerns, some congressional watchers say.
“This is the exact kind of bill they want to point to and say Republicans are working on issues that their voters care about, and Democrats would want the same,” said Julian Zelizer, a history and public affairs professor at Princeton University. “That’s not the signal that the administration is sending.”
One housing leader who received an invite to the ceremony from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office said they were on the way to the event in their Lyft when they received a text with a screenshot of Trump’s post that read: “Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT.”
The housing leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they then received an email from the speaker’s office shortly after. The housing leader’s first reaction: “incredibly disappointed, but not shocked.”
One business lobbyist who was set to attend the signing ceremony was standing on the Capitol steps, when another attendee told them to check their email, as the event was canceled. Seconds later they received a message with a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post.
“When I found out the reason why, it was disappointing, but it wasn’t shocking,” said the lobbyist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “With the president in the White House, things can happen on a dime.”
Trump’s last-minute decision to cancel the signing ceremony represents a broader pattern of the president suddenly reversing course on policies previously deemed a priority, including a canceled public signing ceremony in May for an executive order to create a system to vet powerful new AI models before they are released publicly. Trump ultimately signed a revised version of the order weeks later.
Lawmakers were equally blindsided by Trump’s decision on the housing bill. Especially considering that Senate Republicans had already expressed they lacked enough support to pass the Save America Act, which would impose stricter election rules.
House GOP leadership was in the middle of a news conference when Trump canceled the ceremony on social media. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (R-Arkansas) had just discussed his work with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) to get the bill through both chambers.
When Johnson opened the floor for questions, a reporter notified him of Trump’s social media post. When asked if Trump would sign the bill at a later date, Johnson said, “It’s my estimation he’ll do it within that 10-day window.”
A president has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to either veto or sign a bill after they receive it from Congress. If the president does not act within the window, the bill automatically becomes law if Congress is in session.
Johnson sent the bill to Trump on Monday, June 29, which means the 10-day window closes at the end of Friday at midnight.
While many housing advocates have said the bill does not go far enough to address the nation’s housing shortage, they argue it is an important first step.
The bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, would bar institutional investors from buying more than 350 single-family homes, expand federal grant programs to give cities money for building new homes and eliminate an outdated federal construction rule to make manufacturing mobile homes cheaper, among other measures.
Zelizer said Trump’s negative comments about the bill could make it more difficult for some lawmakers, particularly vulnerable Republicans, to sell that idea to voters.
The business lobbyist who was planning to attend the signing ceremony said the cancellation and Trump’s comments hurt the positive momentum around the bipartisan success in passing the bill but they don’t see that having much sway on Americans’ minds on the matter.
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