WASHINGTON--In a hastily announced event, President Donald Trump announced Friday afternoon that he had just signed a bill to fund the government "as a matter of national security," hours after a tweeted threat that he was weighing a veto of the $1.3 trillion bill.

Speaking at the White House, Trump called the spending bill a "ridiculous situation," while standing in the White House Diplomatic Room, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and several Cabinet members.

"There are a lot of things I'm unhappy about in this bill," the president said, pointing to the inclusion of unspecified items that he said were added in order to get necessary funding for the U.S. military.

"In this case, it became so big because we need to take care of our military and because Democrats, who don't believe in that, added things that they wanted in order to get their votes," Trump explained.

Asked about his earlier veto threat, Trump told reporters he “looked very seriously at the veto” and “was thinking about doing the veto but because of the incredible gains we’ve been able to make for the military, that overrode any of our thinking.”
But Trump also said this would be the last time he would sign such a spending measure.

"I say to Congress: I will never sign another bill like this again," Trump promised. "Nobody read it. It's only hours old. ... (It's) the second-largest ever. President Obama signed one that was actually larger, which I'm sure he wasn't too happy with either."

Trump also demanded that the Senate end the filibuster rule, as well as allow the president a "line-item veto for all government spending bills" going forward.

The signing capped off hours of drama in Washington with lawmakers, Capitol Hill staffers and White House aides blindsided by the president's threat on Twitter to veto the bill, which temporarily upended the previously agreed upon deal for government funding.

Trump's threat prompted renewed concerns of yet another government shutdown, because the measure doesn't adequately fund his desired border wall or protect recipients of the DACA program his administration ended.

And while funding for the wall did not reach the level the president had hoped for, he predicted that the $1.6 billion that was allocated for it in the short term would “go very far.”

The warning contradicted assurances from high-ranking White House officials who a day earlier had left no doubt Trump would sign the measure before the government funding deadline of Friday at midnight.

"Let's cut right to the chase. Is the president going to sign the bill? The answer is yes," Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney told reporters at the White House on Thursday. "Why? Because it funds his priorities."

Pence, at a tax policy event in New Hampshire on Thursday, said the bill funds several of the administration’s priorities, including a border wall, school safety, the opioid crisis and infrastructure.

Trump's tweet came only hours after the Senate early Friday morning passed the $1.3 trillion deal that would fund federal government operations through Sept. 30 and avert what would have been the third government shutdown this year. (Source: NBC News)

Story Date: March 25, 2018