US President Donald Trump has vetoed the annual defence policy bill, following through on threats to veto a measure that has broad bipartisan support in Congress and potentially setting up the first override vote of his presidency.
The bill affirms 3 per cent pay raises for US troops and authorises more than US$740 billion ($976 billion) in military programs and construction.
The action came while Mr Trump was holed up at the White House, stewing about his election loss and escalating his stand-off with Republicans as he pushed fraudulent conspiracy theories and tried to pressure them to back his efforts to overturn the results.
The House was poised to return Monday, and the Senate on Tuesday, to consider votes to override the president's veto.
Long before issuing the veto, Trump offered a series of rationales for rejecting it. He has called for legislators to include limits on social media companies he claimed are biased against him — and to strip out language that allows for the renaming of military bases such as Fort Benning and Fort Hood that honour Confederate leaders.
Without going into detail, he has claimed the biggest winner from the defence bill would be China.
In his veto message to the House, Mr Trump cited those objections and stated that the measure "fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military's history, and contradicts efforts by my Administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions. It is a 'gift' to China and Russia."
He also wrote: "Numerous provisions of the Act directly contradict my Administration's foreign policy, particularly my efforts to bring our troops home.
Both the House and Senate passed the measure by margins large enough to override a veto from the president.
Mr Trump had vetoed eight bills previously, but those vetoes were sustained because supporters did not gain the two-thirds vote needed in each chamber for the bill to become law without Mr Trump's signature.
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