Trump reluctantly signs Russia sanctions bill for ‘sake of national unity.’
President asserts bill has ‘a number of clearly unconstitutional’ clauses
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed legislation Wednesday imposing sanctions on Russia and limiting his own authority to lift them, but asserted that the measure included “clearly unconstitutional provisions” and left open the possibility that he might choose not to enforce them as lawmakers intended.
The legislation, which also includes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, represented the first time that Congress had forced Trump to sign a bill over his objections by passing it with bipartisan, veto-proof majorities. Even before he signed it, the Russian government retaliated by seizing two U.S. diplomatic properties and ordering the United States to reduce its embassy staff members in Russia by 755 people.
‘Bill seriously flawed’
The measure reflected deep skepticism among lawmakers in both parties about Trump’s friendly approach to President Vladimir Putin of Russia and an effort to prevent Trump from letting the Kremlin off the hook for its annexation of Crimea, military intervention in Ukraine and its meddling in last year’s U.S. election.
As other presidents have in the past, Trump protested that Congress was improperly interfering with his power to set foreign policy, in this case by imposing waiting periods before he can suspend or remove sanctions first imposed by former President Barack Obama while Congress reviews and potentially blocks such a move.
In the statement to Congress, Trump said the bill “included a number of clearly unconstitutional
provisions.” Although he added that “I nevertheless expect to honor” the waiting periods, he did not commit to it. Moreover, he took issue with other provisions, saying only that he “will give careful and respectful consideration to the preferences expressed by the Congress.”
“This bill remains seriously flawed — particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate,” Trump said in the separate statement to reporters. “Congress could not even negotiate a health care bill after seven years of talking. By limiting the executive’s flexibility, this bill makes it harder for the United States to strike good deals for the American people and will drive China, Russia and North Korea much closer together.”
“Yet despite its problems,” he added, “I am signing this bill for the sake of national unity.”
Warning from Russia
Like Trump, who has offered no public comment or even a Twitter message about the Russian order to slash the number of U.S. Embassy workers, it appears that Putin has not completely given up on the idea of establishing closer relations. The Russian government took its retaliatory action before the president signed the bill so that it would be a response to Congress, not to Trump.
But in an emotional Facebook post Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described the move as a humiliating defeat for Trump. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned of possible new retaliatory measures.
“The hope for improving our relations with the new U.S. administration is now over,” said Medvedev, who served as Russian president in 2008-2012 before stepping down to allow Putin to reclaim the job.
Trump’s administration has demonstrated total impotence by surrendering its executive authority to Congress in the most humiliating way,” Medvedev said.