WASHINGTON (US) -President Donald Trump suffered a stinging rebuke in the U.S. Senate on Friday when fellow Republicans joined Democrats to override a presidential veto for the first time in his tenure, pushing through a defense policy bill he opposed just weeks before he leaves office.
Meeting in a rare New Year’s Day session, senators voted 81-13 to secure the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.
Eight previous Trump vetoes had been upheld and until Friday’s vote, he had been on track to be the first president since Lyndon Johnson with none overridden.
The Senate also ended for now a push by Democrats to increase COVID-19 financial relief checks from $600 to $2,000, a change sought by Trump. The effort was blocked by Republicans.
Republican lawmakers have largely stood by the president during his turbulent White House term.
Since losing his re-election bid in November, however, Trump has lashed out at them for not fully backing his unsupported claims of voter fraud, for rejecting his demand for bigger COVID-19 relief checks, and for moving to override his veto.
In another setback for Trump, a judge rejected a lawsuit filed by a Texas lawmaker and other Republicans against Vice President Mike Pence seeking to overturn Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Pence is set to preside on Wednesday over a joint session of Congress to formalize the results of the election.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Monday voted to override Trump’s defense bill veto. A president has the power to veto a bill passed by Congress, but lawmakers can uphold the bill if two-thirds of both houses vote to override the veto.
The $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) determines everything from how many ships are bought to soldiers’ pay and how to address geopolitical threats.
Trump refused to sign it into law because it did not repeal certain legal protections for social media platforms and included a provision stripping the names of Confederate generals from military bases.
“We’ve passed this legislation 59 years in a row. And one way or another, we’re going to complete the 60th annual NDAA and pass it into law before this Congress concludes on Sunday,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had said ahead of the vote.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the president of using his final weeks in office “to sow chaos,” saying in a statement that Congress urged him to “end his desperate and dangerous sabotage.”
The bill also overhauls anti-money laundering rules and banning anonymous shell companies, making it easier to police illicit money flows.