What, exactly, is the point of it anyhow?
President Donald Trump said he signed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill into law Friday, despite a veto threat and provisions he says he is “unhappy” about.
The president approved the legislation to fund the government through September for national security reasons, as it authorizes a major increase in military spending that the president supports. Trump criticized the rushed process to pass the more than 2,200-page bill released only Wednesday, saying he would “never sign another bill like this again.”
“As a matter of national security, I’ve signed this omnibus bill,” Trump said at the White House on Friday.
I’m not going to even pretend to try to understand this one. No one cares about politicians or presidents professing to be “unhappy” or vowing that they won’t do what they literally just did again again. Hearing a president say he’ll never sign another spending bill is like hearing a crack addict vow that he’ll never smoke another rock or a serial adulterer promising future faithfulness.
Now, I don’t blame Trump for the spending bill. He didn’t push it. This is on the House Republicans and Paul Ryan, not him. But I will blame him for not forcing Congress to override his veto. Apparently not even President Trump understands that no one buys the “a matter of national security” bullshit anymore.
I’ve never been more proud to not be a Republican.
UPDATE: Look, it’s a mistake. It’s not a betrayal. The winning was NEVER going to be unanimous or uninterrupted. Don’t be like the conservatives and leap to embrace defeat as inevitable simply because ONE battle was unnecessarily lost. Or in this case, unnecessarily lost sooner than it would have been; Trump may have known that the Democrat-Republicans had the necessary votes to override his veto and decided not to waste his time fighting an unwinnable battle.
I think he should have for the sake of morale, but it’s not my call. Regardless, this is not the primary front. That’s my take on it. Be frustrated, be angry, but do not despair and do not give up.