Why didn't Trump veto H.R. 3364 since he considers it "significantly flawed" with "clearly unconstitutional provisions"?

Question

Earlier today U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed into law H.R. 3364, the "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act."

Among other things, this law is known for enforcing additional sanctions on Russia.

In a statement to the press (available here) written after signing this law, President Trump's sentiments were expressed thus (emphasis added):

While I favor tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and destabilizing behavior by Iran, North Korea, and Russia, this legislation is significantly flawed.

In its haste to pass this legislation, the Congress included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions. For instance, although I share the policy views of sections 253 and 257, those provisions purport to displace the President's exclusive constitutional authority to recognize foreign governments, including their territorial bounds, in conflict with the Supreme Court's recent decision in Zivotofsky v. Kerry.

Additionally, section 216 seeks to grant the Congress the ability to change the law outside the constitutionally required process. The bill prescribes a review period that precludes the President from taking certain actions...(continued)

Looking at the statement the President seems to have had multiple reservations about this law.

Consequently why did he not veto it?

Answer 1

In addition to the problem of veto-proof majorities the others have noted, there's another factor: he can always choose to selectively not enforce or otherwise comply with the portions of the law he deems unconstitutional. Thus he can keep the portions of the law he says he does agree with, while ignoring the allegedly unconstitutional parts (he is obliged to adhere to parts that are constitutional, even if he disagrees with them).

If you look up Zivotofsky v. Kerry, this case originates from a law signed by George W. Bush, portions of which he felt were unconstitutional. He simply refused to enforce or otherwise comply with those portions, and this case was the result of that refusal (which was maintained by the Obama administration, during which the suit actually happened). The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the President's position.

So Trump can simply opt to ignore or otherwise not enforce certain provisions of the law he thinks are unconstitutional and let it eventually get resolved by the courts (which might not even happen during his administration, due to the particulars necessary to successfully bring a suit in the first place if nothing else). Until court decisions try to force the matter otherwise, the law would basically function in whatever way he says it does.

Answer 2

The presidential veto powers are not unlimited. In particular, Congress can override it if 2/3 of the members of each chamber vote to do so.

The bill has been adopted with overwhelming majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives (so-called “veto-proof majority”). One concern could therefore be that vetoing the bill would simply result in Congress passing it anyway, humiliating Trump and again feeding the controversy around the president's attitude towards Russia.

Answer 3

When the President vetoes a bill, Congress can force it into law by voting it again with a 2/3 majority.

Practice is so that when there's a strong likelihood of that happening, POTUS usually spares itself the humiliation of getting overridden and just signs it.

This particular bill passed with 419-3 in the House, and 98-2 in the Senate.

Answer 4

Presidential vetos are no longer generally regarded as the appropriate tool for dealing with unconstitutional laws; instead, the Supreme Court has become the sole determinant of constitutionality. Examples from the previous Republican administration:

McCain-Feingold:

President Bush signed the law despite "reservations about the constitutionality of the broad ban on issue advertising." He appeared to expect that the Supreme Court would overturn some of its key provisions.

The Federal Telephone Excise Tax

Treasury Secretary John W. Snow stated in a prepared release, "Today is a good day for American taxpayers; it marks the beginning of the end of an outdated, antiquated tax that has survived a century beyond its original purpose, and by now should have been ancient history." Snow also called on the United States Congress "to terminate the remainder of this antique tax by repealing the excise tax on local service as well."

Note that this is a Cabinet secretary praising a Supreme Court decision that his department lost!

The modern attitude seems to be "pass / enforce it all and let the Supreme Court sort it out".

Answer 5

The other answers didn't cover the political aspects of this, but there's a high chance that it was also political optics.

Given that Trump's opponents keep harping on "Russian collusion" story and treat every single fact that has anything to do with Russia through the lens of their pareidolia; vetoing this bill would be 100% guaranteed to be interpreted not as "veto on constitutional grounds" but "doing Putin's bidding" by our mass media who is all-knowing and can read people's minds. That would politically harm Trump, while not doing anything useful for him due to veto-proof majorities.

Answer 6

İn short, not enough reasons to veto.

He is clearly not against it, he states it's flawed, also it's an effort but it's not adequate. Being somewhat flawed and a little bit shorter than adequate is not enough for veto.