Wednesday Afternoon News Updates: Trump Abruptly Torches His Own Bill Signing – 6/24/26
Today's news you need to know
Hi all, Ben here. It’s Wednesday, and Donald Trump just completely blew up his own party’s big day.
Here’s what we’re tracking today:
Trump cancels the signing of a bipartisan housing bill at the last minute, holding it hostage for the SAVE America Act
Senate passes a War Powers Resolution on Iran 50-48; Trump accuses four Republicans of giving “aid and comfort” to Iran
Oil prices crash below $70 a barrel; Trump blames oil companies for “gouging”
Trump claims his approval rating is the highest ever, contradicted by a new poll showing 30%
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool saga continues, now with a side debate about turning it into an “ecosystem”
Interior Department puts up banners pairing Trump with George Washington
Primary results roll in from Maryland, New York, South Carolina, Utah, and South Dakota, with a big progressive night in NYC
MeidasTouch scoop: Newsom and Becerra meet for the first time since the primary
Scott MacFarlane hits 200,000 YouTube subscribers
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Let’s get into it.
Trump Blows Up His Own Bill Signing
This morning quickly got off to a bizarre start. Congress had actually passed a real, bipartisan piece of legislation. An actual bill! The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. The bill cleared the Senate 85 to 5 and the House 358 to 32. For people keeping score at home, that is about as close to unanimous as anything gets in Washington these days. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott worked together on the Senate side. French Hill and Maxine Waters worked together on the House side. Republicans and Democrats actually agreeing on something that helps regular people.
The bill increases housing supply, cuts red tape and outdated environmental review requirements that slow down construction, and restricts large institutional investors, the ones who own 350 or more single-family homes, from buying up even more of the housing stock. It also creates grant programs to help local governments reform zoning, supports rural and manufactured housing, and expands small-dollar mortgage access. This is the kind of unglamorous, technical legislation that actually moves the needle on whether young families can afford a home. I’d argue it could go further, but it’s a real step in the right direction.
So naturally, with cameras set up in Statuary Hall, chairs arranged, the presidential seal mounted on the podium, all the pageantry in place for what should have been a genuinely good news day for the country, Trump cancelled it.
This morning, just hours before the ceremony, he posted that the signing was “hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”
Now stick with me here, because this is where it gets good.
