President Trump is considering signing legislation that would end the U.S. role in Yemen’s stalemated civil war after his advisers urged him to veto the bill.
Trump’s choice pits his aversion to Mideast wars against concern about the consequences of not routing Iran-allied Yemeni rebels who took over population centers in 2014. Most GOP lawmakers and Trump’s in-house advisers opposed the bill, but it passed with support from some of Trump’s closest allies, including Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Although White House advisers urged a veto, potentially Trump’s second, Trump expressed open-mindedness Thursday, telling reporters, “I’ll look at it.” Since then, he’s made no public remarks amid behind-the-scenes lobbying.
Bipartisan supporters of the legislation, including Republican Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote to Trump on Thursday requesting a sit-down meeting. The lawmakers are declining to make press statements as they await word from Trump.
A Capitol Hill source said the resolution will reach Trump’s desk Tuesday at the earliest and perhaps next week if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are too preoccupied to sign paperwork required by Byzantine legislative rules.
Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he’s optimistic Trump either will sign the resolution or allow it to take effect without his signature, which would happen 10 days after it is formally presented.
“I’m hopeful that the thinking that he demonstrated in his 2016 campaign is going to prevail,” said Kucinich, who led a group of lawmakers in suing then-President Barack Obama for intervening in Libya’s civil war in 2011. “It’s good that President Trump is slowing down the aggressiveness inside of his administration that could lock us into conflict or widen conflict. It allows him to focus on economic interests, which is also important for his reelection.”
Trump routinely condemns his predecessors for involving the U.S. military in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, and this year publicly confirmed peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan. But he rarely speaks about the Yemeni civil war, in which the U.S. provides logistical support to a Saudi Arabia-led coalition seeking to reestablish the leadership of ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was selected in a one-man election in 2012.
Kucinich views regional developments as promising. In addition to U.S. troop drawdowns in Syria and Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Monday it would withdraw U.S. troops from Libya.
“Look at what is happening today: U.S. troops are being moved out of Libya. President Trump was elected on a noninterventionist position. And I believe as he goes into 2020, he’s going to want to protect that commitment. There are people in the administration who have urged him to intervene in certain places or have urged him to stay in certain places, but I think the president understands the risk of getting bogged down and the potential of that leading to a bigger conflict,” Kucinich said.
Many lawmakers voted for the Yemen legislation as a rebuke to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who the CIA assessed was responsible for ordering the murder last year of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The war in Yemen has put millions of people at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations.
In a statement of policy issued April 1, White House advisers guided by hawkish national security adviser John Bolton said lawmakers misunderstood the U.S. contribution to Saudi Arabia’s military campaign and that the resolution would be a worrying precedent infringing on presidential authority and international alliances.
The legislation, which has carve-outs allowing unrelated intelligence sharing with Saudi Arabia and anti-al Qaeda operations in Yemen, twice passed the House, and twice passed the Senate, after maneuvers by GOP leaders in the House derailed the bills. In the final votes, it passed the Senate 54-46 last month and the House 247-175 on Thursday.
Some opponents of the war doubt that Trump will allow the resolution to take effect.
Justin Raimondo, the libertarian editor at large of Antiwar.com, said, “I think the administration is going to stick with their Saudi allies, the only allies we have that aren’t hoping for a Trump defeat in 2020.”
