President Trump Signs Controversial $1.3 Trillion Spending Bill After Veto Threat

President Trump has signed a controversial $1.3 trillion spending bill recently passed by Congress despite conservative objections.

Trump says he will never again support similar legislation, and in the end, the increased military spending convinced him not to veto.

According to Politico:

“President Donald Trump signed the $1.3 trillion spending bill Friday, averting a government shutdown and ending a panic that briefly gripped official Washington.

A few hours after stunning even his closest advisers by tweeting that he was “considering a VETO“ of the bill, he held a news conference to say he would begrudgingly support it “as a matter of national security.“

“There are a lot of things that I’m unhappy about in this bill,” he said. “There are a lot of things that we shouldn’t have had in this bill.”

Trump said he swallowed his objections because of its funding boost for national defense and the military. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly were key in convincing Trump not to veto the legislation, according to a source familiar with conversations between congressional leaders and the president.

“I will never sign another bill like this again,” he said, calling the 2,200 page plan passed by Congress soon after it was unveiled a “ridiculous situation,” adding, “I’m not going to do it again.”