President Trump issued his first vetoes of his second term this week, rejecting legislation that passed Congress with bipartisan support and prompting criticism that his actions were the latest moves in the president’s retribution campaign.
The two bills aimed to fund a water pipeline in southeastern Colorado, and expand land reserved for the Miccosukee Tribe in Florida as well as direct the Interior Department to help mitigate flooding there.
In messages to Congress released Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he blocked the bills to save taxpayers’ money. But the president has grievances against the Miccosukee Tribe and the state of Colorado, leading lawmakers to accuse Mr. Trump of blocking the bills because of political disagreements. Throughout his second term, Mr. Trump has carried out a campaign of retribution against political opponents, law firms, universities and specific individuals.
In Florida, Mr. Trump suggested the veto of the bill to expand Miccosukee Tribe land was tied to its opposition to his immigration agenda. The Miccosukee Tribe joined a lawsuit earlier this year to block the administration from constructing an immigrant detention center in the Everglades nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz. And in Colorado, Mr. Trump has attacked the state’s leaders over the imprisonment of a former state election official, Tina Peters, for interfering with the 2020 presidential election.
“Despite seeking funding and special treatment from the federal government, the Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected,” Mr. Trump wrote in a message to Congress. “My administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding projects for special interests, especially those that are unaligned with my administration’s policy of removing violent criminal illegal aliens from the country.”
Both pieces of legislation passed by voice vote in Congress, indicating strong bipartisan support and suggesting lawmakers may try to override the president’s vetoes, which requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers. In Mr. Trump’s first term, he vetoed 10 pieces of legislation, one of which — the 2021 military policy bill — was overturned.
The Colorado legislation, which was sponsored by Representative Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, would help local communities pay for the Arkansas Valley Conduit water pipeline.
“Enough is enough,” Mr. Trump wrote in a message to Congress. “My administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies.”
Ms. Boebert slammed the president’s veto, arguing he was “denying clean drinking water for 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado.”
“I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability,” she said in a statement.
Ms. Boebert was a vocal supporter of releasing the Epstein files, drawing backlash from the White House, and the president has attacked Colorado’s leaders in recent weeks over Ms. Peters. She was found guilty of interfering with voting machines in an effort to prove falsehoods that they had been used to rig the 2020 election against Mr. Trump. The president has pledged to pardon Ms. Peters, even though she was convicted in state court and Colorado officials argue he had no power to do so.
“This isn’t governing,” Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado, wrote on X about the president’s veto. “It’s a revenge tour.”