Washington, Oct 28 — US President Donald Trump has said he would use his veto power and strike deals if Democrats win control of the House or the Senate in next week’s midterm elections, while touting a jump in consumer confidence and a “gift” of oil from Venezuela.
Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing on Tuesday, Trump was asked how he would work with Democrats if Republicans did not prevail on November 3.
“We’ll figure a way. Look, I hope that that won’t be the case, but if it is, that’s happened before with many Presidents, you have strong veto and you end up working on deals,” he said.
The midterms, a week away, will decide control of both chambers of Congress for the last two years of Trump’s term.
Trump also hailed the latest consumer confidence data, released earlier in the day.
“We just had a consumer confidence report just came out it’s up at a record number a record increase 7.5 per cent just came out so that’s a great that’s a great number you don’t see that happened very often not to that extent,” he said.
The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index rose by 7.5 points to 91.7 in October, from 84.2 in September. The figure was a rise in index points, not per cent, and the board did not describe it as a record. It said confidence had “revived to June levels”.
Fergus McCormick, senior economist at the Conference Board, said the recovery “was in line with retail gasoline prices easing from September to October”. “Yet, despite the increase in October, consumer confidence remained on the long-term downward trend that’s persisted over the past few years,” he said.
Consumers’ average 12-month inflation expectations eased but remained elevated at 5.8 per cent, the board said.
On energy, Trump said Venezuela had sent a large oil shipment to the United States.
“We took over Venezuela very successfully. And they’ve sent me as a gift, a boatload of a million barrels of oil. And I’m giving that to the United States of America,” he said.
“We’re going to accept a million barrels of oil. And I’m going to give it to you people to use it the way you want. And we’re going to have oil prices are going to be dropping very sharply,” he added.
Fuel prices have been a central issue in the campaign, with gasoline costs high due to the conflict in the Middle East.