Why Does Trump Want the Save America Act? The Answer Should Worry Us.

On Wednesday, President Trump threatened to block the extension of the surveillance program, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA, which expired on Saturday, unless a measure to reauthorize also included his beloved elections bill, the SAVE America Act. Trump has called passage of the SAVE America Act his chief legislative priority and has continually applied pressure on Senate Republicans to force the passage of the bill. Why does the President care so much about the Act’s passage—especially since it is abundantly clear that he does not have sufficient Senate votes to overcome a filibuster? Neoclassical economics asks us to reason from a presumption that actors are rational. Some observers find the President's recent behavior unintelligible on those terms, but I want to take seriously the possibility that there is a coherent reason behind his fixation, and to walk through the candidates. The rational hypothesis that survives scrutiny is the one that, most…