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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump vetoed the annual defense policy bill on Wednesday, following veto threats on a measure that enjoys broad bipartisan support in Congress and potentially staging the first vote waiver of his presidency.
The bill asserts 3% wage increases for US troops and authorizes more than $ 740 billion in military and construction programs.
The action came as Trump was locked in the White House, stewing his electoral loss and escalating his standoff with Republicans as he pushed forward fraudulent conspiracy theories and tried to pressure them to support his efforts to cancel the results.
The House was set to return on Monday, and the Senate on Tuesday, to consider votes to overturn the president’s veto.
Long before issuing the veto, Trump offered a series of justifications for rejecting it. He called on lawmakers to include limits on social media companies he believes are biased against him – and to remove terms for renaming military bases such as Fort Benning and Fort Hood that honor Confederate leaders. Without going into details, he claimed that the biggest winner of the defense bill would be China.
In his veto message to the House, Trump cited these objections and said the measure “does not include critical national security measures, includes provisions that do not respect our veterans and the history of our military, and contradicts my administration’s efforts to put America first. our actions in matters of national security and foreign policy. It is a “gift” for China and Russia. “
He also wrote: “Many provisions of the law directly contradict the foreign policy of my administration, especially my efforts to bring our troops home.
The House and Senate passed the measure with sufficient margins to overturn the president’s veto. Trump had vetoed eight bills previously, but those vetoes were upheld because supporters failed to get the two-thirds of the votes needed in each chamber for the bill to become law without Trump’s signature.
Prior to the veto, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said the bill would help deter Chinese aggression. Other GOP supporters of the measure, including Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the second-largest Senate leader, and Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, tweeted that the bill would counter threats from countries like China.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump’s claim that China was the biggest winner in the defense bill was false. Reed also noted the shifting explanations Trump had given for the veto.
“President Trump clearly hasn’t read the bill and doesn’t understand what’s in it either,” Reed said. “There are several bipartisan provisions here that are getting tougher on China than the Trump administration has ever been.”
The measure guides Pentagon policy and cements decisions regarding troop levels, new weapon systems and military readiness, military personnel policy, and other military objectives. Many programs can only go into effect if the bill is approved, including military construction.
McConnell, in a rare break with Trump, had urged passage despite Trump’s threat to veto it. McConnell said it was important for Congress to continue its nearly six-decade streak of passing the Defense Policy Bill.
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