Trump says he will be ‘Mr Veto’: The US president's veto powers and how far they can take him as Democrats look set to control Congress | HT Explainers

The veto, an American president’s power to reject a bill passed by both chambers of Congress, is the main legislative weapon President Donald Trump would hold against a Democratic Congress, and the US Constitution makes it hard to overturn.

US President Donald Trump gestures after disembarking from Marine One as he returns, following campaign rallies in Iowa and Kansas, in Washington, DC, November 2, 2026. (REUTERS)Democrats were projected to win the House of Representatives in the November 3 midterm elections and looked set to take control of the Senate as results poured in on Wednesday. The change in the House takes effect on January 3, likely ending Trump’s ability to pass laws with Republican votes alone, Bloomberg reported.

Trump has said repeatedly what he would do next. He told CBS in a telephone interview on Tuesday that he would be "Mr Veto", AFP reported. In an excerpt of an interview with the New York Post's Pod Force One podcast released on Sunday, he said: “I guess I'll become Mr Veto… And then at some point, we'll probably make deals.”

Under Article I, Section 7 of the US Constitution, every bill that passes the House and the Senate goes to the president. If he approves it, he signs it. If he objects, he must send it back “with his Objections” to the chamber where it began.

The word “veto” is not specifically mentioned in the clause.

The president can also leave a bill unsigned. If Congress is in session, it becomes law after 10 days, Sundays excluded. If Congress adjourns before then, the bill dies, in a process called the pocket veto.

He must accept or reject a bill whole. Congress passed a law in 1996, signed by then president Bill Clinton, that let the president strike out some spending items and tax breaks after signing a bill. But the US Supreme Court struck it down in 1998, in Clinton v City of New York, holding that it did not follow the procedure the Constitution lays down for making and repealing laws.

Most bills a Democratic Congress passes would first have to survive the filibuster, the Senate minority's power to hold up legislation by refusing to end debate. Ending debate takes 60 votes in the 100-member chamber, more than the numbers Democrats are expected to command.

Some measures can skip that hurdle. Three laws provide fast-track procedures meant to allow a simple-majority vote on resolutions to withdraw US forces from hostilities, to end a national emergency declared by the president, or to overturn a federal regulation. But all of them still need the president's signature.

Resolutions of this kind accounted for half of Trump's first-term vetoes, and they are the measures Democrats could most easily put on his desk. Trump has declared national emergencies to act without new laws, Reuters reported. The Congress can vote to end them, but he can veto that vote. With the US at war with Iran, a resolution on war powers could also reach his desk on a simple majority, as one did in 2020.

Trump and Democrats are likely to bargain over money. They will have to work together on funding the government and on lifting the debt ceiling, the legal limit on federal borrowing, Bloomberg reported. Neither can become law without his signature or an override.

Trump has said he expects vetoes to give way to deals. “And you have strong veto and you end up working out deals,” he told reporters last week, AP reported.

Reuters reported that he expected to issue vetoes for “a month or two” before reaching compromises with Democrats.

A report by the Congressional Research Service, Congress's in-house research agency, notes that a veto can also work as a threat, pushing lawmakers to change a bill before it reaches the president.

The Constitution lets a vetoed bill become law only if two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate vote to pass it again. With every member voting, that means 290 of 435 representatives and 67 of 100 senators.

Democrats would need a large bloc of Republicans to break with Trump in both chambers, if this was to happen.

Presidents usually win these fights. The US Congress has overridden only 112 of the 2,599 vetoes issued since 1789, about one in 23**, counting pocket vetoes, which cannot be overridden**.

Trump has used the veto 12 times and been overridden once. All 10 vetoes of his first term came after Democrats took the House in 2019, and eight of them rejected resolutions rather than ordinary bills. Two would have ended a national emergency he declared on February 15, 2019. Others concerned US involvement in Yemen’s war, arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and three European countries, and an education department rule.

The Iran war powers resolution reached him in May 2020. He vetoed it on May 6, and the next day, the Senate voted 49-44 to override, well short of two-thirds.

His one defeat came over the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defence policy law. He vetoed it on December 23, 2020. The House voted 322-87 to override on December 28, and the Senate followed 81-13 on January 1, 2021.

In his second term, with Republicans running Congress, Trump has vetoed two bills, both on December 29, 2025: a water-project bill and a tribal-lands bill. The House upheld both vetoes.

Franklin D Roosevelt, president from 1933 to 1945, holds the record, with 635 vetoes. Just nine of them were overridden.

Andrew Johnson (1865 to 1869) lost more veto fights than any other president: Congress overrode 15 of his 29 vetoes. One of them was the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Johnson vetoed it on March 27, 1866, the Senate voted 33-15 to override it on April 6, and the Act became law on April 9. That was the first time Congress overrode a presidential veto of major legislation, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Justin Fox wrote in 2018.

The US Congress overrode Richard Nixon, president from 1969 to 1974, on the War Powers Resolution itself. He vetoed it on October 24, 1973; the House voted 284-135 and the Senate 75-18 to override on November 7. That law also gives Congress the fast-track vote on withdrawing US forces. Analysts say Democrats can now use this path for the Iran war.

The example, perhaps closest to the emerging scenario now, could be of George W Bush (2001 to 2009), who vetoed one bill in his first six years, a stem-cell research bill in July 2006. Then, Democrats took both chambers in that year’s midterms. Bush then issued 11 vetoes in 2007 and 2008. Four were overridden: a water projects bill, the farm bill twice and a Medicare bill. One that held was a war funding bill, the Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, which he had vetoed on May 1, 2007, and the House failed to override it the next day, 222-203.

Barack Obama, president from 2009 to 2017, was overridden once, in September 2016, when Congress passed a law allowing relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. The Senate vote was 97-1. It was the first override of his presidency, four months before it ended.

Joe Biden, president from 2021 to 2025, issued 13 vetoes, none of them overridden.

The new Congress takes over on January 3. The funding and debt-ceiling bills it has to pass will need Trump's signature, or two-thirds of both chambers.

HT Explainers Desk delivers in-depth explainers and analysis on the stories shaping India and the world, from SimplyPut, Hindustan Times’ dedicated explainer section. The desk unpacks the science, policy, geopolitics and market forces behind major news events, breaking down complex developments into clear, accessible reporting for readers who want more than the headline. Explainers draw on the expertise of the journalists covering the story and insight from leading subject experts, translating specialist detail into plain language without losing precision or nuance. Coverage spans national and global news — from health and science breakthroughs to trade, technology, cybersecurity, aviation, energy and public policy — going beyond what happened to explain how it works, why it matters and what to watch next. Written for readers who want context, and not just the headlines, HT Explainers Desk brings together original reporting, data and expert analysis to make sense of the news as it develops. It is part of Hindustan Times, India's leading source for news, in-depth analysis and explanatory journalism since 1924.Read More