WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump is poised to cast his first veto after the U.S. Congress on Thursday voted to block his national emergency declaration on border crisis.
"I look forward to VETOING the just passed Democrat inspired resolution which would OPEN BORDERS while increasing crime, drugs, and trafficking in our country," Trump tweeted after the U.S. Senate followed the House of Representatives in passing a resolution that would rebuke his efforts to build a border wall.
This would be the first veto from Trump, which is likely to prevail but would undermine his relationship with the Republican Party.
Earlier Thursday, 12 Republican senators broke rank and joined the Democrats in delivering a 59-41 result in favor of blocking the national emergency. The vote took place after talks between the White House and Republican senators collapsed late Wednesday and Trump's 11th-hour call for solidarity among Republican lawmakers Thursday morning was brushed off.
The Senate's vote marked the first time Congress acted against a national emergency declaration since the National Emergencies Act was enacted in 1976, and demonstrated that not all Republican senators are willing to stand by Trump in fear of setting a bad precedent where the president can operate outside of the Congress-passed spending bill.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 245-182 in late February to approve the same bill. Neither chamber have produced the two third majority needed to override Trump's veto.
At the center of the fight between Congress and the White House is Trump's determination to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. Trump declared a national emergency on Feb. 15 after Congress passed a spending bill with less money to fund the wall than he had requested, giving himself the power to tap into funds allocated for other purposes for the wall.
