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Unsurprisingly, the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, has vetoed the defense budget decided by Congress.
21:57, 23 December 2020
Unsurprisingly, the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, has vetoed the defense budget of 740 billion dollars (about 610 billion euros) decided by Congress. Trump said in a letter to the House of Representatives on Wednesday that he could not support the law because it contradicted the foreign policy and national security of his administration. “It is a ‘gift’ for China and Russia,” Trump wrote, without further information..
Among other things, he criticized the fact that the law does not more closely regulate online platforms. He also criticized the renaming of several military bases, which was promoted after protests against racism. Trump also criticized the attempt to legally limit the withdrawal of soldiers from Afghanistan, South Korea and Germany that he had ordered. This is not only bad policy, but also unconstitutional, he wrote. Under the constitution, the president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The decision on how many soldiers should be deployed where is therefore yours.
Trump had already announced his veto. His block could, however, by a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate: so in both houses of congress – be outvoted. Both houses had originally approved the package with a majority of more than two-thirds. Parliament could reportedly vote on it again in the week after Christmas. The Leader of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, named December 28 as the day the House of Representatives would vote.
Shortly before the end of his presidency, it would be the first time for Trump that Congress overrides his veto. Trump has vetoed it eight times in his four-year term. The Republican lost the presidential election on November 3 to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump refuses to admit defeat. Biden will be sworn in on January 20. Until then, Trump remains in office with full rights.
The defense budget was approved with bipartisan support for 59 consecutive years. Since the failure of the defense budget is politically unthinkable, the legislative package, as usual, also deals with numerous regulations that actually have nothing to do with financing the armed forces.
Trump had wanted Congress to change what is known as Section 230, which protects online platforms from being held liable for content posted by their users. Trump called Wednesday’s ruling “a serious threat to national security and the integrity of the election.” Critics, in turn, accuse Trump of only seeking revenge because he is angry at Twitter and Facebook because they had warned him about his claims about the crown crisis and alleged fraud in the presidential election.
The legislative package provides, among other things, that Trump’s planned massive withdrawal of US soldiers from Germany will be blocked for the time being. It says there that the United States Secretary of Defense must declare in a report to Congress whether such a withdrawal would be in the national interest of the United States. At the earliest 120 days later, the number of US soldiers stationed in the Federal Republic may fall below the 34,500 limit. The law also states that threats of sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline in the German-Russian Baltic Sea will be expanded.
The vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democrat Mark Warner, criticized that Trump’s veto decision poses a serious threat to national security and said he hopes to overturn this “unsuccessful and ridiculous attempt” by the president.
