Trump's 'ginned up panic' threatens to backfire — and strip Republicans of vote: analyst

The SAVE ACT that Donald Trump is desperate to pass through in time for the upcoming midterms could actually be a huge help to the Democratic Party, a New York Times columnist warned the president Wednesday.

Trump has said the number one priority for the Republican Party should be pushing through the bill. If passed into law, it would mean U.S. citizens would require voter ID at the ballot box, and mail-in votes would be hindered massively.

This could affect millions of voters, according to The New York Times' Jamelle Bouie — who suggests those hindrances of voter ID could be more of a problem for the GOP's voter base than the Dems'.

Bouie wrote, "Far from neutering the Democratic Party, the SAVE Act might improve its ability to win big in this year’s midterms as a result of education polarization and a stark difference in enthusiasm between the two parties.

"But Trump and his allies think otherwise, and intent matters. The point of the SAVE Act, for them, is to use a ginned-up panic over noncitizen voting to disenfranchise the tens of millions of Americans who oppose the president and who have, as a result, been placed outside the political community.

"The SAVE Act embodies Trump and the Republican Party’s astonishing contempt for the idea that a fair election is one where you can vote without being hassled by the state."

Bouie went on to explain that, despite the GOP being hot on the prospect of passing the bill into law, it would actually hinder the voters who may place their vote in the Republican Party's column.

"The SAVE Act would go beyond simple voter ID to impose a national citizenship requirement. Consider too the millions of American women who, upon marriage, took their husband’s last name and may need to get a new birth certificate to register to vote.

"Now, if we step back and look at the composition of the American electorate, the reality is that the SAVE Act might work against the Republican Party. Married women, and especially those who have taken their husband’s last names, are a Republican-leaning group. So are Americans without passports, who tend not to have college degrees.

"And those Americans most likely to lack the personal or civic resources to obtain documentation on short notice are the low propensity voters that put Trump over the top in 2016 and 2024 — the same voters that Republicans need in November."