Why Trump can't govern by veto

Now that it is becoming fairly clear that the Democrats are going to triumph in the November elections this year, taking House and Senate, the question is, how effective they can be, with Trump as President. Can't Trump simply govern by veto, as Presidents have in the past, from the Oval Office? The answer to that is actually fairly simple, and the answer is "no". Why, exactly? Certainly, in the past, many highly successful Presidents have indeed dealt with unruly Congresses by governing by veto. Most notably, FDR, Grover Cleaveland, Harry Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were chronic users of their veto pen. In more recent American political history, vetoes have become rare, to some extent because the mere threat of a veto discourages legislation, and to some extent because party polarization has made it more difficul to assemble the votes required for any potential veto overrides. These two are, of course, closely related. However, Donald Trump is a special case. Donald Trump is a convicted felon. Donald Trump has already been impeached twice in his first term of office. Donald Trump is also highly unpopoular, with strong disapproval rates of 50%, and strong approval rates of only 14%. So, any veto of popular legislation by Donald Trump, wil inevitably arouse howls of rage from most Americans, and arouse very little strong support, at all. Legislators from both parties, including his own, will no doubt hear about this. And, these legislators, particularly from his own party, will fear justified righteous retribution from their electors, and being cast out into the cold by them, of unelectable Hell. So, all Donald Trump has to do is veto a couple of popular pieces of legislation, and, suddenly, he may well find that the Republican firewall in the Senate preventing him from not only being impeached by the House, but actually removed by the Senate, will rather magically disappear, very quickly indeed. Certainly, it is a rather likely thing to happen, isn't it? Now, of course, many of you will say that the electorate is polarized, and Republican senators dare not antagonize Trump's loyal MAGA "base". However, with generic polling suggesting that the Democrats are currently leading the Republicans by double digits, and with Democrats outperforming their polls by double digits in most of the elections, the question is, does Trump have any significant real base left? Trump has been saying that he wants the electors to vote as if he himself were on the ballot. However, what if that's exactly what the electors have been doing lately? And, of course, once Trump is removed from office, his electoral shield of the Presidency from criminal prosecution ceases to exist. Indeed, Congress might decide to remove some conservative justices from SCOTUS, and permanently eliminate the "presidential immunity" so recently instituted by them. Presidential immunity might go the way of the Dred Scott decision, as a direct result of the Trump presidency. So, on the whole, I really don't think it is possible for Donald Trump to govern by veto. Not for very long, anyway. #politics #uspolitics #uselections #trump #donaldtrump #impeachment #usconstitution #veto #maga #dredscott #presidentialimmunity #supremecourt #ushistory #politicalscience #history #scotus #republicans #democrats