President Trump has signed the omnibus spending bill he threatened to veto only hours earlier, making the announcement in what he billed as a last-minute “news conference.” Mr. Trump said he “seriously” considered vetoing the legislation, but decided against doing so to fund the military.
“I just want to thank everybody for being here,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re very proud of many of the items that we’ve been able to get. We’re very disappointed that in order to fund the military we had to give up things where we consider in many cases them to be bad or them to be a waste of money. But that’s the way unfortunately right now the system works.”
Mr. Trump told Congress he would “never” sign such a bill again, after the Senate passed the legislation early Friday morning to avoid a shutdown at midnight. As recently as Thursday, Mr. Trump’s top White House staff said he would sign it, and the president himself in a tweet Wednesday touted the bill’s funding for his border wall.
“I will never sign another bill like this again,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m not going to do it again. Nobody read it. It’s only hours old.”
Mr. Trump shocked Washington Friday morning when he – against every indication from himself and his staff — said he was considering a veto. The president’s threat, for a few hours, threw what seemed like a done deal into a chaotic situation. Many House and Senate members have already left Washington, D.C., for the week, rendering another vote in both chambers before a shutdown impossible.
Follow along below for updates from earlier.
