Trump Stuns Congress With First Vetoes of His Second Term
Trump vetoes two bipartisan bills, igniting backlash in Congress. The veto showdown highlights tensions over water funding and Native American policy.
President Donald Trump has vetoed legislation for the first time since returning to the White House nearly a year ago, raising the prospect of a clash with American lawmakers.
The two bills he vetoed had passed Congress with bipartisan support, meaning lawmakers could potentially muster enough votes to override them in the new year.
One bill was introduced by Trump ally and prominent Republican Representative Lauren Boebert and aimed to reduce funding for new water pipelines being paid for by communities in her home state of Colorado.
The other bill supported a flood relief project for a Native American tribe in Florida that had filed a lawsuit to stop the construction of "Alligator Alcatraz."
In a message to Congress, Trump called the Colorado plan economically unfeasible.
"Enough is enough," Trump said. "My administration is committed to stopping American taxpayers from funding wasteful and unreliable policies."
He added that the bill would have impacted payments made to the federal government for building a pipeline to deliver fresh water to the eastern part of the state.
Boebert, one of the few conservative lawmakers who broke with Trump this winter and pushed for the release of the Epstein files, responded to the veto with a post on X (formerly Twitter) that read: "This isn't over."
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She then said in a statement, "I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation."
Trump has also been at odds with Colorado political leaders over the imprisonment of 73-year-old county clerk Tina Peters, who repeated false claims of rigged elections in the 2020 election and was convicted by both state and federal governments for election security-related crimes.
Trump, who pardoned Peters this month for her federal charges, has urged Colorado's Democratic Governor, Jared Polis, to release her. Police have said that it is up to the courts to decide her case, which has become a rallying cry for the "Make America Great Again" wing of the Republican Party, led by Trump.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday, "Free Tina Peters!" and wrote of the Colorado officials: "I only wish the worst for them. May they rot in hell."
The other bill he vetoed, the Miccosukee Reservation Area Act, would have required the Department of the Interior to help a tribe in Florida prevent flooding in a poorly developed section of their community. In his veto message, Trump wrote that the Miccosukee had developed the land "without permission." The White House also alleged that the tribe had "deliberately tried to obstruct the sound immigration policies that the American people voted for by a massive majority when they elected me."
The Miccosukee tribe has sued the Trump administration over the construction of an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz."
In court documents, the tribe argued that the construction of the site would have a significant impact on them and that its construction would threaten the environment.
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