President Trump says the US will ‘defeat’ Iran if it rebuilds its nuclear program
President Donald Trump said the United States would “defeat” Iran if it rebuilt its nuclear program.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump issued the first veto of his second term just before the end of the year, blocking two bipartisan infrastructure bills.
One of the bills, HR 131, was intended to complete the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a water pipeline under construction to provide municipal and industrial water to communities in southeastern Colorado. Another, HR 504, would have required the Trump administration to work with the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida Indians to protect structures at Camp Osceola from flooding.
Both bills passed the Senate without opposition in December.
Colorado’s pipeline veto, announced in a Dec. 30 White House statement, drew immediate criticism from Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, a staunch former MAGA ally who rebelled against Trump by supporting the release of Jeffrey Epstein files earlier this year.
In a statement to a local Colorado television station, Boebert, the pipeline bill’s sponsor, condemned President Trump’s veto of what she described as a “totally uncontroversial bipartisan bill,” adding, “I sincerely hope this veto is not related to political retribution for condemning corruption and demanding accountability.”
“This is not over,” Boebert later wrote in a post to X.
President Trump’s move comes as the president publicly criticizes Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis over the state’s jailing of Tina Peters, a former county clerk in Colorado who was convicted on multiple charges of accessing secure voting system data to prove a baseless conspiracy to deny the 2020 election.
The Trump administration announced this month that it would move to dismantle the Boulder, Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research, one of the nation’s top climate research centers. The administration also canceled $109 million in environmentally focused transportation grants to Colorado aimed at promoting research into electric vehicles, rail improvements, and trains powered by hydrogen and natural gas.
“President Trump just passed unanimously the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act to bring clean, affordable water to southeastern Colorado,” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, said in a statement. “This is not governance. This is a revenge trip. It is unacceptable. I will continue to fight to give rural Colorado the clean water they deserve.”
In his statement regarding his veto of the water project, President Trump said more than $249 million has already been spent on the waterway, with a total cost estimated at $1.3 billion. He argued the bill would force federal taxpayers to shoulder even more of the cost of projects, which should be borne by local residents.
President Trump said, “Enough is enough.” “My administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies. Ending the huge cost of taxpayer benefits and restoring fiscal health is critical to economic growth and the nation’s fiscal health.”
President Trump targets Florida tribes with second veto
In his other veto statement, President Trump cited the tribe’s opposition to its hard-line immigration policies when explaining why he cut off infrastructure to deal with the tribe’s flooding.
He said Camp Osceola in the Everglades was built without a permit in 1935 on low-lying land raised with fill material. President Trump said the Biden administration has developed a plan to protect and replace “unauthorized infrastructure at the Osceola camp” that could cost up to $14 million.
“But even as the Mikosukee Nation sought funding and special treatment from the federal government, they have actively sought to undermine the reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected,” Trump said.
He said his administration is committed to “preventing American taxpayers from funding projects for special interests, especially those that are inconsistent with my administration’s policy of removing illegal aliens from our country who have committed violent crimes.”
Contributed by: Reuters
Contact Joey Garrison @joeygarrison.
