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The president of the United States, Trump, has again opposed a decision of the Congress. The defense budget veto also annoys his party friends. Furthermore, a wave of fines is causing problems.
By Sebastian Hesse, ARD-Studio Washington
A growing list of pardons, the veto against the defense budget, the blocking of the Corona aid package: shortly before going on a Christmas vacation to Florida, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, returned to exercise his muscles . Things had calmed down around him since Election Day, as if he had been temporarily dismissed from day-to-day politics.
“In the past seven weeks we have gathered abundant evidence of how the Democrats committed their massive election fraud against Americans and around the world,” Trump said in a video message Wednesday night.
Pardons for loyal companions
The truth is that he won the elections overwhelmingly and on a grand scale. But Trump’s sensational decisions shortly before the end of his term sound more like a swan song. In a second round of pardons yesterday he released legal convicts like Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as longtime loyal companions like his former campaign leader Paul Manafort and his former adviser Roger Stone.
“My indictment was a politically motivated witch hunt,” Stone said after his Fox News clemency, “and my trial was a Soviet-style trial.” His thanks go to “the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln,” who had the courage to correct this injustice.
Defense budget rejected
However, among friends of Trump’s party, resentment over his activism appears to be growing. Republicans had negotiated the defense budget, which Trump criticized as a “gift to China and Russia,” as laboriously with Democrats as the Corona aid package. Funding for the United States military has not been suspended in 59 years.
Trump is annoyed that online platforms are not more strictly regulated by the legislative package. He also rejects the renaming of the military bases and complains that the law makes it difficult to withdraw US troops from Germany, Afghanistan and South Korea.
Do the Republicans follow or revoke the veto?
John Bolton, Trump’s disgraced former security adviser, advises his friends in the Republican Party to override the presidential veto in Congress. Crushing Trump’s veto with the necessary two-thirds majority is crucial. The oath is expected to take place on the Monday after Christmas.
So Trump’s actions are above all a loyalty test for his friends in the party: do they follow him and improve the defense budget? Y: do you follow it and increase the crown aid? Since the Covid package is tied to a lengthy budget law, there is a threat of a government shutdown as of December 29 if Trump does not sign the full package by then. So you can still use the full power of the presidency.
