Former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) spoke with President Trump on the phone amid the government shutdown showdown earlier this month.
Axios reported Sunday that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus called Boehner when the bill was final, telling him Trump was considering vetoing Congress’s funding plan. He asked if the former Speaker would talk with the president about signing the bill.
{mosads}Boehner reportedly told Trump that he should avoid a government shutdown and be thankful that the deal included an increase in military spending, Axios said.
Trump signed on May 5 the $1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through the end of September.
Trump approved the measure at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he was spending a long weekend.
Lawmakers left out many of Trump’s top priorities in the funding bill, such as money for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The measure boosted defense spending by $21 billion without an accompanying spike in domestic spending, which Republicans championed as a victory.