The Daily · The New York Times

Trump Wants to Change How We Vote. Will He Succeed?

March 20, 2026·35 min·3 clips

The Save America Act would ban mail-in voting and restrict transgender rights, all under President Trump's top priority.

A voting bill sits at the center. The excerpt treats the Save America Act as a Senate fight over who gets to vote and how hard Trump can lean on his own party. Trump is blunt about it. He says he is for not approving anything until the bill is approved, which turns the legislation into a loyalty test as much as a voting fight. Rachel Abrams keeps asking the practical question: why would some Republicans resist a president who has made this his stated priority? Michael Gold's answer is dry, but it matters. Republican senators are looking past this presidency and trying to protect the Senate's power as an institution. They can picture life after Trump, and they know Democrats could use weakened Senate norms against them later. That is not sentimental. It is a fight over power, precedent, and whether Congress can still say no to a president from its own party. Then the episode widens the lens. If the Save America Act stalls, the administration is still looking for other ways to alter upcoming elections. Nick Coriciniti comes in to explain that second track and how those plans could reshape American elections with or without the bill. The excerpt keeps the stakes close to governance. This is not only about one piece of legislation. It is about pressure, administration action, and election rules moving through more than one channel. A closing news note adds another Trump-era pressure point: FBI employees allege that Kash Patel and Pam Bondi retaliated against agents connected, even briefly, to election interference work. That beat is separate, but it lands in the same neighborhood: loyalty, institutions, and government jobs treated like political tests.

As heard by us

A steady account of Trump's drive to reshape voting rules, and the Republicans pushing back.

The Daily shifts into a closely argued look at President Trump's push to change who gets to vote, with the Senate fight over the Save America Act at the center.

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Why you'd press play

You want the real stakes behind the Senate fight over the Save America Act.

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