US Congress overrides Trump’s defense veto

Severe setback for US President Donald Trump around three weeks before his departure from office: The US Congress has overruled Trump’s veto on the defense budget by an overwhelming majority. After the House of Representatives, the Senate, dominated by Trump’s Republicans, voted on Friday with the necessary two-thirds majority for the budget. It is the first time in Trump’s tenure that a formal objection by the president to a bill has been thrown down by Congress.

In the Senate, the two-thirds majority required to reject Trump’s veto was easily achieved. Although the Republicans of the US president make up the majority there, 81 of the 100 senators now voted for the defense budget, only 13 against. The House of Representatives, where the opposition Democrats have a majority, had already overruled the president’s veto on Monday with a two-thirds majority of 322 to 87. 109 Republicans also opposed Trump’s objection.

Shortly before Christmas, Trump had vetoed the defense budget passed by Congress with a volume of 740.5 billion dollars (605.5 billion euros). He cited a number of reasons for this – including the fact that the text ran counter to his plans for US troops to withdraw from Germany and Afghanistan.

After the vote in the Senate, the defense budget is now definitely approved. The budget text states, among other things, that US troops in Germany may only be reduced 120 days after a comprehensive report on the effects of such a withdrawal among 34,500 soldiers has been submitted. Since Trump’s term of office ends on January 20, a troop withdrawal could not be carried out by then.

The US Department of Defense announced at the end of July that it would withdraw almost 12,000 soldiers from Germany and thus reduce the troop strength from around 36,000 at the time to 24,000.

The text of the law also stipulates new sanctions against the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea. The US government firmly rejects the construction of Nord Stream 2 and last year already imposed sanctions on the operators of ships that lay pipes for the pipeline.

During his tenure, Trump had largely relied on Republican support in Congress. However, since his electoral defeat to future President Joe Biden on November 3, he has faced growing opposition from Republican members of Congress.

Most recently, Trump had reviled the Republican leadership as “weak and tired”. The head of the Republicans in the Senate and previously loyal Trump supporter, Mitch McConnell, was not impressed by it. At the start of the Senate session on Friday, he again called on the Republicans to approve the defense budget. The US would have to be armed against “competitors like Russia and China”, he said, among other reasons.

Biden is sworn in as the new President of the United States on January 20. Trump still does not acknowledge his electoral defeat and continues to raise the completely unsubstantiated accusation of election fraud.

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