The White House has seized on an online exchange between Olive Garden and a customer over its new unlimited pasta pass to reinforce its push for stricter voter identification laws. After the Italian restaurant chain said on social media that photo identification would be required to redeem the pasta pass, politically engaged commentators, including figures in the Trump administration, used the episode to argue that if ID is needed for pasta, it should also be required for voting.

The row comes as President Donald Trump continues to press Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would mandate photo voter ID and proof of citizenship in federal elections; he has said he will not sign a separate housing bill unless it includes voter ID measures. Trump claims the legislation has support from 97% of Republicans and a number of Democrats, and cites it as key to preventing voter fraud, while Democrats and China have separately pushed back on related election-interference claims.