Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Tuesday said the SAVE America Act is dead in remarks to reporters.

A reporter asked Thune if he’s worried that Trump will criticize his leadership since he is unable to make it happen and pass the SAVE America Act.

Thune said he simply doesn’t have the votes.

“Anyone who follows this process closely knows we don’t have the votes,” Thune said.

“And the only way that you can figure out how to get the votes, and even in that case, the SAVE America didn’t even get 50 votes last week on the floor of the Senate,” Thune added.

He continued, “But even if you confined it to just the two issues on photo ID and citizenship to vote, on those two issues, it takes 60 votes in the Senate. The only way you could get there is to get rid of or undo the legislative filibuster. There aren’t even close to the votes in the United States Senate to achieve that,” Thune said.

“It’s an issue we all agree on. We’re all for it and we all voted that way but it’s not something that we’re gonna be able to get done absent having an election and electing some more Republicans,” he said.

Last week, the Senate rejected the SAVE America Act as part of the reconciliation package.

Four Republicans voted to reject the Graham Amendment: Murkowski, McConnell, Tillis, and Collins.

BREAKING: Four Senate Republicans just joined Democrats to block one of President Trump’s key legislative priorities.

In a setback for the White House, GOP Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis and Mitch McConnell broke with their party to help stop the SAVE America… pic.twitter.com/ynjwdxsdEC

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 4, 2026

The amendment needed 60 votes to pass, but this vote showed that the Republicans likely wouldn’t pass the SAVE America Act if the filibuster was nuked.

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