Trump Threatens to Veto Crucial Spending Bill Just for the Hell of It

By Clio Chang  |  March 23, 2018 | 2:03pm
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A $1.3 trillion spending bill made its way through Congress early Friday morning and was on its way to Donald Trump’s desk. The bill, which increases both defense spending for big boy Republican hawks and domestic spending for Democrats, was intended to stave off a government shutdown, which will happen on Friday night if Trump does not sign it. While it included nearly $2 billion for border fencing and technology, it did not include money for a border wall. It also did not include a fix for the DACA program which Trump unilaterally ended.

Just yesterday, Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director, said that Trump “looks forward to signing” the bill, and Trump gave it his begrudging endorsement on Twitter. But I guess he changed his mind, because, on Friday morning, he decided to throw a last-minute wrench in things:

Trump, of course, is full of shit when it comes to DACA, given that he was the one who rescinded it in the first place, and could restore it any time he wanted. He is—quite despicably—using young undocumented immigrants to grandstand because the spending bill does not include more funding for a border wall he spent literal years insisting Mexico was going to pay for. (Also, Fox & Friends verrrrryyyy coincidentally criticized the bill on air this morning, saying that “there’s no wall. Ultimately, the Democrats controlled this process in the Senate.”)

The White House communications team has put together a quickfire response, saying, “The president’s comment is the comment.” Thanks!

Senator Bob Corker, who once said Trump was a threat to start “World War III” was apparently happy to support the president here, because he is just SO concerned about deficits that he’s been pacing around just down the street with a pen labeled “Hate Deficits, But <3 Trump.”

So what’s really going on? Well, the Washington Post’s Robert Costa reported that Trump is now essentially just fucking with people for fun, which makes a lot of sense.

We’ll see if Trump actually sticks to his guns. But if he does, it certainly won’t be from a dear place in his heart for DACA.

 
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