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Trump set to veto defense bill over renaming bases honoring Confederate leaders
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Trump set to veto defense bill over renaming bases honoring Confederate leaders

President Donald Trump is threatening to veto military funding bill unless a bipartisan provision to rename military bases honoring Confederate leaders is removed.

Politics

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is threatening to veto legislation to fund the military as one of his final acts in office unless a widely supported, bipartisan provision to rename military bases honoring Confederate military leaders is removed, according to White House, defense and congressional sources.

Since the Nov. 3 election, Trump has privately told Republican lawmakers that he won't back down from his position during the campaign that he would veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act if it includes an amendment to rename the bases.

A senior administration official confirmed Trump's conversations with Republicans and his veto threat. "He's said that," the official said.

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Trump's stance has put in doubt legislation that had been agreed to by Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate. It has sent members of Trump's party scrambling to find a path for the defense bill, which outlines military policy and funding, and put them on a collision course with Democrats.

While some Republicans are now shifting their positions to align with Trump, Democrats are refusing to budge on the agreed-to amendment, threatening passage of the legislation.

The effort to change the names of military bases honoring Confederate military leaders has been a target for Trump for months. It was among the disagreements he had with his former defense secretary, Mark Esper, who was quietly working with Congress to codify the renaming of bases in the bill before Trump fired him this month.

The pressure from Trump has increased as members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees have begun formal negotiations to work out the differences in the legislative bodies' respective bills.

Both chambers overwhelmingly passed a provision that would change the names of Confederate-named bases as part of their defense bills.

But the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., indicated that he's gotten the message from Trump, and he called it a "big issue" of contention in negotiations with Democrats.

"Only the president can say whether or not there's any room for a negotiation," Inhofe said, adding that he doubts that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would put legislation up for a vote on the floor "that has a veto on it."

Democrats are balking, saying Republicans are buckling under pressure from a lame-duck president. Three dozen Senate Democrats wrote a letter urging that the provision remain.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, acknowledged that the issue has become a central sticking point.