Trump Signs Russia Sanctions Bill, Calls it ‘Significantly Flawed’
Russia has already demanded the U.S. reduce consulate employees by 755.
President Donald Trump has signed a bill that imposes sanctions on Russia for alleged interference in our presidential election and on Iran and North Korea for their missile programs. However, in a signing statement, Trump called the bill “significantly flawed.”
From ABC News:
The bill limits the president’s ability to lift or waive sanctions against Russia and keeps in place sanctions the Obama administration imposed last year. It also allows the U.S. to deny entry and revoke visas for individuals who have engaged in certain activities, such as selling arms to the Syrian government or abusing human rights.
Before the bill was signed, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed that neither he nor the president approved of the sanctions, believing they hinder the administration’s attempts to restore relations with Russia.
“The action by the Congress to put these sanctions in place and the way they did, neither the president nor I were very happy about that,” Tillerson told reporters Tuesday. “We were clear that we didn’t think it was going to be helpful to our efforts.
Here is Trump’s statement about the bill:
JUST IN: Pres. Trump issues signing statement calling Russia sanctions bill “significantly flawed.” https://t.co/zkcYjFzoF3 pic.twitter.com/aYfNBbnm5b
— ABC News (@ABC) August 2, 2017
Trump claimed that “Congress included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions.” These include encroachment on executive authority and possible harm to U.S. businesses and allies we have:
“By limiting the Executive’s flexibility, this bill makes it harder for the United States to strike good deals for the American people, and will drive China, Russia, and North Korea much closer together,” Trump said in a statement on Wednesday morning. “The Framers of our Constitution put foreign affairs in the hands of the President.”
“This bill will prove the wisdom of that choice,” he added.
Signing statement accompanying the new sanctions bill pic.twitter.com/iygyaEZYgE
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) August 2, 2017
Despite his concerns, Trump explained that he signed the bill for “national unity.”
The European Union has insisted it will retaliate if this new sanctions bill hurts any European companies.
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Comments
Let the Democrats and Republicans who supported this bill own it!
That’s pretty much all of them.
Which is the point.
If everyone is responsible then no one is responsible.
Trump should have vetoed it on the grounds of separation of powers because it infringes on the power of the executive branch over international relations.
He would have, if his veto wouldn’t have been overridden. Trump doesn’t like to lose, so he avoided the optics of losing, if not the fact of it.
That’s the charitable interpretation, which also seems to me the most correct one. :/
Also, it would have driven the MSM and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) into a frenzy of frothing drivel.
Far better to take what you wanted in the first place and deal for the rest.
Will this prohibit Hillary’s uranium sales to Russia Russia Russia?
It is already prohibited; although the yellowcake used to make a round-trip to Canada.
But it turns out that the market for uranium is so depressed that it is not currently being mined. Maybe Trump can do away with the the regulation that requires an export license so that it can be sold to Russia Russia Russia. All regulations are bad – right? All regulations are bad!
The company was actually bought on the public markets. That’s capitalism! The Russians were willing to pay above market for the company in a depressed market. Were you? Should the US government have bought it and nationalized it? That would have made the Clinton Foundation donors just as happy and would have been an equally good campaign issue – BAILOUT!!!!
BTW, 2 new generation reactors were just cancelled in SC after spending 9 Billion on them. Would they have used American mined uranium? Not necessarily. There are mines in friendly countries around the world.
I assume you know that we have been buying bomb-grade fissile material from Russia for years. We dilute it and turn it into reactor fuel for commercial electric generation. So we don’t appear to be in danger of running out – assuming anyone wants the stuff.
But it does sound scary or treasonous – like we are giving the Russians an edge in building nuclear weapons. Don’t worry! Be happy! We each have enough to blow up the world many times over and the half-life of U-235 is a 700 Million years. I am pretty sure we will melt from global warming or the 2nd coming will occur long before that. The sun only has 4 billion years to go.
If it is “significantly flawed” he should have vetoed and let Congress override/own it.