President Donald Trump begrudgingly signed the spending bill Congress passed this week, but he swore that he would never sign something like it again.
“I will never sign another bill like this again,” he said at press availability scheduled at the last minute Friday afternoon.
Trump said that he was only signing the massive spending bill because he wanted to ensure that the military has proper funding and expressed frustration that Democrats were able to secure funding for programs they favor.
“There are a lot of things I’m unhappy about in this bill,” he said.
The President also complained about the rushed nature of the spending deal, which was released Wednesday night, passed by the House on Thursday, and then passed by the Senate early Friday morning.
“You tell me who can read that quickly,” he said.
Trump’s announcement that he signed the bill came after he published a tweet Friday morning threatening to veto it, complaining that it lacked sufficient money for the border wall. Though the White House had stated earlier that Trump would sign the bill, his tweet put the spending bill in jeopardy for a few hours.
I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill 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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2018
Trump also called for Congress to give him the ability to issue a line-item veto, a power that was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1990s.