Congress handed Trump a win.
A bipartisan housing bill - the kind of thing both parties can campaign on when voters are furious about costs - passed the House and Senate with support from both sides.
Leaders from both parties called it a breakthrough. The signing was set for Wednesday at noon in Statuary Hall.
Then Trump canceled it.
"Today's Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled," Trump posted on Truth Social at roughly 11 a.m. Wednesday - just over an hour before he was supposed to be at the Capitol.
His reason: Congress hasn't passed the SAVE America Act, a controversial bill that would impose nationwide voter ID requirements and crack down on noncitizen voting, which is already illegal in federal elections and happens rarely.
Trump called the election bill a "National Emergency" and said he won't sign the housing package until it passes.
The housing bill aims to increase supply, make homes more affordable, and cap how many single-family homes private equity firms can buy. It's the kind of legislation members of both parties wanted to run on ahead of the 2026 midterms, where affordability is shaping up to be a defining issue.
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The problem for Trump: the SAVE America Act has almost no path forward.
The House passed it in February. It's popular with Republicans. But without Democratic support, the GOP is well short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the Senate filibuster.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters the only likely route is budget reconciliation - a process that lets the Senate bypass the filibuster but can only be used for spending and budgetary measures. There are serious questions about whether an election bill would even qualify under Senate rules.
And reconciliation is slow. The president has 10 days to sign or veto the housing bill before the clock runs out.
Trump met with Senate Republicans on Wednesday afternoon. The lunch was arranged by Sen. Rick Scott, not GOP leadership, which is unusual.
It got heated. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary last month after Trump backed his opponent, reportedly yelled at the president over the Iran memorandum of understanding. Cassidy told reporters afterward: "I'm not going to be bullied when I feel like I'm asking a question the American people need to know."
Sen. Ted Cruz called it a "spirited discussion." Sen. Jim Justice described it as "very passionate" but not "super combative."
Trump's version: "I think we had a really great meeting. We like our leader. I don't like a few people, but that's OK."
Coming out of the meeting, there was no clarity on the housing bill's future. Sen. John Husted, a supporter of the package, said it "wasn't really discussed."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he hopes Trump "finds a way to sign it." Rep. French Hill, who led the housing bill in the House, said Trump "picked the day, and now he's chosen to change the day."
This is the second time in a week Trump has derailed a Republican priority at the last minute by demanding the SAVE America Act. Last week, he told his own DNI nominee not to show up for a confirmation hearing and tied a foreign surveillance extension to the same voter ID bill.
A bipartisan housing bill that both parties wanted to campaign on is now sitting on the president's desk with a 10-day fuse and no clear way forward.
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