Trump Vetoes Congressional Resolutions Blocking Raytheon Saudi Arms Sales, Protecting Defense Contractor Profits

On July 24, 2019, President Trump vetoed three congressional joint resolutions that would have blocked major components of his $8.1 billion emergency arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including transfers of Raytheon Paveway precision-guided munitions. The vetoes overrode bipartisan Senate majorities that had voted to disapprove the sales, protecting defense contractor revenues despite documented use of US weapons in Yemen war crimes. The blocked resolutions specifically targeted Paveway bombs (manufactured by Raytheon) and fuzing systems to detonate them—the same weapon types identified in attacks killing Yemeni civilians including the August 2018 school bus massacre and multiple funeral and wedding bombings. Trump’s veto message claimed the sales were “critical to US national security and foreign policy interests” and necessary to counter Iranian threats, ignoring extensive congressional testimony about Saudi war crimes and the fabricated nature of the “emergency” justification. The vetoes marked Trump’s fifth, sixth, and seventh uses of presidential veto power, demonstrating his willingness to spend political capital protecting defense contractor profits.

Override Attempts Fail

Following Trump’s vetoes, the Senate voted on July 29, 2019 to override them, but fell far short of the two-thirds majority required. Three separate override votes failed 45-40, 45-39, and 46-41, with all Democratic and independent senators voting to override but only five Republicans (Susan Collins, Mike Lee, Jerry Moran, Lisa Murkowski, and Todd Young) joining them. The 45-46 vote totals were nowhere near the 67 votes needed to override, meaning Trump’s vetoes stood and the Raytheon sales would proceed. The failed overrides demonstrated the limits of congressional power to constrain executive branch arms transfers backed by defense industry lobbying. Despite bipartisan opposition to the sales, Republican senators ultimately deferred to their party’s president and defense contractor economic arguments. For Raytheon and other contractors, the override failures represented decisive victories—congressional opposition had been neutralized, and the weapons pipeline to Saudi Arabia would continue uninterrupted despite documented war crimes.

Defense Contractor Victory

The veto outcomes represented major victories for Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, whose $8.1 billion in Saudi contracts were preserved despite months of congressional scrutiny and bipartisan opposition. Raytheon specifically benefited from protection of both immediate Paveway munitions sales and the technology transfer agreement allowing Saudi domestic bomb production. Company executives had lobbied aggressively to maintain Trump’s support, arguing that blocking sales would cost American jobs and cede Middle East markets to Russian and Chinese competitors. The successful defense of Saudi contracts validated Raytheon’s political strategy—investing in lobbying, maintaining executive branch relationships, and leveraging economic arguments proved sufficient to overcome humanitarian concerns and congressional majorities. The vetoes demonstrated that defense contractors enjoyed presidential protection even when selling weapons to regimes committing documented war crimes, as long as contractors maintained political influence and framed sales as economic and strategic necessities rather than moral questions.

Yemen Atrocities Continue with US Weapons

Trump’s vetoes ensured that Raytheon Paveway munitions and related weapons systems would continue flowing to Saudi Arabia despite extensive documentation of their use in civilian-casualty incidents. The August 2018 school bus attack, the October 2016 funeral hall massacre, multiple wedding bombings, and dozens of other atrocities had established clear patterns of Saudi coalition war crimes using US weapons. Congressional testimony from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and UN investigators had documented at least 21 apparently unlawful attacks involving US-manufactured weapons. However, this evidence proved insufficient to overcome presidential determination to protect arms sales. The vetoes sent an explicit message: no level of civilian casualties would prompt US action restricting Saudi weapons access, as long as the executive branch and defense contractors aligned to preserve the relationship. For Raytheon, the vetoes meant business as usual—continued Saudi contracts worth hundreds of millions annually, with presidential protection from congressional accountability efforts.

Significance

Trump’s July 24, 2019 vetoes protecting Raytheon Saudi arms sales represented a decisive victory for defense contractor influence over democratic oversight and humanitarian concerns. The president spent significant political capital—using three of his seven total vetoes to date—specifically to preserve weapons transfers to a regime committing documented war crimes. The vetoes demonstrated the political economy of the military-industrial complex in operation: defense contractors leveraged economic arguments and executive branch relationships to overcome bipartisan congressional opposition backed by extensive human rights documentation. For Raytheon, the vetoes validated the company’s bet that its political influence could withstand humanitarian scrutiny, even when congressional majorities opposed sales and human rights organizations had documented weapons use in atrocities killing children. The failed override attempts revealed structural features protecting defense contractor profits—the two-thirds threshold for overriding vetoes effectively gave presidents unilateral authority over arms sales when willing to defy Congress, and partisan loyalty proved stronger than humanitarian concerns for most Republican senators. The Yemen war would continue for years after the vetoes, with Raytheon weapons continuing to kill civilians, demonstrating that the July 2019 showdown had permanently established that defense contractor revenues enjoyed presidential protection regardless of documented war crimes. The vetoes marked the moment when congressional oversight of arms sales conclusively failed, leaving defense contractors and executive branch officials free to continue Yemen weapons transfers despite bipartisan opposition and overwhelming evidence of systematic civilian casualties.