US president said he would sign bill to avert shutdown of the federal government because of the need to strengthen the military

Donald Trump announced on Friday that he had reluctantly signed Congress’s $1.3tn spending bill, despite a threat he made hours earlier to veto the budget and shut down the federal government.

Senate passes $1.3tn budget bill as Republican leaders rush to avert shutdown Read more

The president caused consternation with a tweet in which he said he might exercise his right to veto over the bill’s lack of immigration measures. But in impromptu remarks at the White House, Trump said he would sign because of the need to strengthen the military.

“My highest duty is to keep America safe,” Trump told reporters. “We need to take care of our military … As a matter of national security, I’ve signed this omnibus budget bill. There’s a lot of things that I’m unhappy about in this bill.”

He added that “in a sense we were forced”, describing the rushed nature of the negotiations on Capitol Hill as “a ridiculous situation”. The 2,232-page bill was released to lawmakers hours before it passed the House and Senate on Thursday, a day before the shutdown deadline.

He vowed: “I say to Congress: I’m never going to sign a bill like this again. Nobody read it. It’s hours old.”

He blamed Democrats in particular for not giving priority to the military – which gets a $66bn increase over 2017 spending – and insisting on their own measures being included.

“We have tremendous opposition to creating really what will be by far the strongest military we’ve ever had,” Trump said.

The president admitted he was disappointed with just $1.6bn for his much-trailed wall on the Mexican border, far short of the $25bn he wanted. “Not happy with $1.6bn but it does start the wall and we will make that $1.6bn go very far,” he said.

The bill takes some actions on gun control and the opioids crisis but does not include protections for young undocumented migrants brought to the country as children, known as Dreamers and previously protected under an Obama-era executive order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Daca.

As a matter of national security, I’ve signed this omnibus budget bill. There’s a lot of things that I’m unhappy about Donald Trump

Trump sought to blame Democrats. “The Republicans are with you,” he said. “The Democrats fought every single inch of the way. They did not want Daca in this bill … Republicans are much more on your side than the Democrats, who are using you for your own purposes.”

But Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, hit back. She said: “The GOP shamefully offered only a temporary patch for only a few Daca recipients, tied to billions for the border wall and extreme interior enforcement that many Dreamers made clear they could not support.”

She went on: “Speaker Ryan has failed to live up to his promise to bring a Daca solution to the floor, and we will continue to press him to give us a vote to protect Dreamers.”

The bill passed the House 256-167 and the Senate by 65-32. Trump called for the Senate to remove its filibuster rule, to allow legislation to advance by a simple majority of 51 votes, and for Congress to give him a line-by-line veto of future budgets to prevent a repeat situation.

The budget passed the House and Senate despite opposition from groups on the right and left. Without new funding the federal government would have been partially shut down, a third such closure in months.

The bill’s $1.6bn for border security is not authorized to be used on the wall prototypes Trump recently viewed in California. Trump’s presidential campaign made building a wall a signature issue, the candidate repeatedly promising that Mexico would pay for it.

“I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill,” Trump wrote in his Friday morning tweet, “based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded.”

Play Video 0:58 Trump examines border wall prototypes in California – video

Daca was canceled by Trump in September. However, litigation has kept protection for many Dreamers in place. Trump rejected a deal with Democrats that would have protected Dreamers in exchange for $25bn for his wall.

“DACA was abandoned by the Democrats,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “Very unfair to them! Would have been tied to desperately needed Wall.”



Trump made his veto threat despite being scheduled to leave Washington for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday evening. In the capital, the House had adjourned.

Mark Meadows, the chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, tweeted his support. Bob Corker of Tennessee, a Senate budget hawk who has clashed fiercely with Trump, tweeted: “Please do, Mr President. I am just down the street and will bring you a pen. The spending levels without any offsets are grotesque, throwing all of our children under the bus. Totally irresponsible.”

Before Trump made the bill law, a senior Democratic aide on Capitol Hill told the Guardian: “One of two things will happen. He either signs the bill by the end of the day or he ends up signing a bill he likes even less after Republicans have to renegotiate with Democrats to get out of a shutdown.”

After Trump signed, a Republican staffer combined the president’s campaign slogan with an acronym for “Republicans in Name Only” to complain that Trump had increased the national deficit. “He’s made Rinos great again,” the staffer said.