Trump Claims Law Encroaches on His Authority
Five days after receiving the bill imposing additional sanctions on Russia, President Donald Trump has signed it into law, but added a “statement raising red flags,” according to the reporter who first broke the story. Unlike many other bills President Trump has signed into law, Trump did not hold a public ceremony heralding the bill’s passage and spotlighting his signing of the bill.
Senior White House Correspondent for Bloomberg News, Margaret Talev, who also serves as a board member of the White House Correspondents’ Association, first reported the news via Twitter:
The White House has not yet made a copy of the President’s statement publicly available.
Trump “is adding a statement saying the administration will carry out the law but with reservations about its impact and the constitutionality of some provisions,” Bloomberg News reports.
“The so-called signing statement, obtained by Bloomberg, lays out Trump’s concerns about the legislation, including that it encroaches on presidential authority and may hurt U.S. ability to work with allies.”
The vote in the House on the bill was was 419-3, and in the Senate 98-2, making it one of the very few veto-majority bills this Congress has been able to pass. Trump had little choice, although there were rumors of a pocket veto, which would be an automatic veto if Trump did not sign the bill and Congress would not be in session to override it.
But while the president signed the sanctions in to law, he has yet to even acknowledge Russia expelling 755 U.S. diplomats from Moscow. News broke Thursday that Russia would be making the move, a response to the passage of the sanctions bill in Congress.Â
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