One big takeaway from Trump’s SOTU, briefly explained

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump gave a very long State of the Union speech last night, clocking in at a record one hour and 48 minutes. You can fit a lot into nearly two hours — but, my colleague Zack Beauchamp argues, you only really needed to hear one line: Trump’s attack on Democrats opposing the SAVE Act. What is the SAVE Act? If passed, the SAVE Act — short for “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act” — would make significant changes to US elections by tightening voter ID requirements, requiring proof of citizenship to register, and ending voter registration solely by mail. What did Trump say on Tuesday? He accused Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the SAVE Act, of “want[ing] to cheat” in elections. “[The Democrats’] policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat,” he said. “We’re going to stop it. We have to stop it.” What’s the big picture? Voter fraud, contrary to what Trump and the GOP claim, is not rampant in the US. In fact, there’s no evidence it’s a major issue at all. But the kind of additional voter ID requirements the SAVE Act proposes would create new administrative barriers to voting that could effectively disenfranchise many Americans. Why does this matter? The SAVE Act itself is not a five-alarm fire: Not only does it have a difficult, unlikely path to passage in the Senate, but, as Zack points out, it doesn’t actually seem like it would accomplish what Trump claims. (Indeed, it’s not clear that stricter voter ID requirements would benefit Republicans at all.) Instead, Zack argues, the concern is in what Trump thinks he’d be accomplishing: “Taken literally,” he writes, Trump’s speech “is the president announcing that the stated policy of his administration is preventing the opposition from winning any future election.” You can read Zack’s full story on the Vox site here. And with that, it’s time to log off… It’s a big week on Capitol Hill: After the SOTU last night, today is the annual Bipawtisan Dog Parade (somewhat delayed from its normal October date by last year’s extended government shutdown, and themed for Mardi Gras instead). I especially enjoyed this photo from NOTUS reporter Em Luetkemeyer. Have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!