“They'll send bills, I'll veto them, and at some point, a month or two later, they'll become garbage.”
Donald Trump has said he would use his veto power to block legislation if Democrats win control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, according to a report by the Times of India citing an interview with The New York Post's Miranda Devine on her Pod Force One podcast. Excerpts were aired on Fox News, with the full episode scheduled for release on Monday.
“If that happens, I believe I'll be Mr. Veto. I'll stop them from establishing themselves, and then we'll probably make a deal,” Trump said, according to the report. He described a standoff in which Democrats would pass bills, send them to the White House and see them rejected, eventually prompting lawmakers to negotiate. “They'll send bills, I'll veto them, and at some point, a month or two later, they'll become garbage. Then you bring them together and make a deal,” he said.
The remarks are a candid description of how the president intends to govern under divided government, and they matter because they set expectations before any votes are cast. Trump framed the approach as familiar rather than novel, saying negotiations could follow repeated vetoes. “And then at some point, we'll probably make deals. That's what's happened. I mean, this wouldn't be the first time,” he said. He also said, “I'm not going to let them ruin it,” while suggesting a Democratic majority would not necessarily prevent his administration from reaching agreements with lawmakers.
The report notes that Trump has issued two vetoes so far in his second term, against 10 bills during his first term. That record gives the threat a concrete baseline: the veto is a tool he has used sparingly, and the language of this interview suggests he would use it far more readily if the opposition controlled Congress.
What is not yet known is how a Democratic majority would respond to serial vetoes, whether override votes would be attempted, or which legislation would be at stake. The interview does not name specific bills, and the report offers no polling on the midterms themselves. The full podcast episode, due on Monday, may add detail, but the excerpts aired so far are the basis for the president's stated position.
The political logic is straightforward. A veto strategy converts legislative defeat into a negotiating posture, allowing the White House to cast itself as a check on the opposition while keeping the door open to deals. Whether that framing survives contact with an actual Democratic majority is the question the midterms will answer.
