What is US Presidential VETO? | Vetoes by President, Historical Records, Override Rates & Key Facts

A US Presidential Veto is the president’s constitutional power to reject a bill passed by Congress, and Congress can overrule a regular veto only with a two-thirds vote in both chambers, which means 290 House votes and 67 Senate votes if every member votes. Presidents have issued about 2,599 vetoes since 1789, and Congress has overridden about 4.3% of them.

What is US Presidential Veto? – Introduction

The US Presidential Veto gives the president a way to stop a bill after Congress passes it. The Constitution’s Presentment Clause sets the rules. The president has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to sign a bill, return it with objections, or let it become law without a signature. Congress can override a returned bill with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. That bar is high, and it explains why only about 4.3% of vetoes have been overridden.

The topic matters more in November 2026. Democrats won the House and Senate on November 3, and Trump posted a red cap that read “VETO” soon after. He said he would block bills from the new Congress. Trump has vetoed 12 bills across two terms, 10 in the first and 2 in the second. Congress overrode only 1 of the 10 first-term vetoes. This report explains how the veto works, ranks presidents by vetoes and overrides, and calculates what an override would take in 2027.

US Presidential Veto 2026 – Interesting Facts

VETOES BY PRESIDENT, TOP FIVE (each █ = 20 vetoes)
Franklin D. Roosevelt | ███████████████████████████████ 635
Grover Cleveland      | █████████████████████████████ 584
Harry S. Truman       | ████████████ 250
Dwight Eisenhower     | █████████ 181
Ulysses S. Grant      | ████ 93

Source: The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, data through January 8, 2026; Congressional Research Service; US Senate.

The table sets the basic scale of the US Presidential Veto. The Constitution gives the president 10 days, excluding Sundays, to act. Overrides need 290 House votes and 67 Senate votes when every member votes. The long-run totals show how rare a successful override is. Presidents issued about 2,599 vetoes and Congress overrode 112 of them, which is 4.3%. Roosevelt holds the record at 635.

Two rows carry extra weight. Andrew Johnson saw 15 vetoes overridden, the most of any president. Seven presidents never used the veto at all, including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams. The Trump row matters for the next two years. He has issued 12 vetoes in two terms and has lost only 1 to an override. Franklin Roosevelt’s total of 635 is more than 6 times Grant’s 93, which shows how much the practice has changed across eras. Presidents of the late 1800s and mid-1900s issued hundreds of vetoes. Modern presidents issue a dozen or fewer in most terms.

US Presidential Veto 2026: Regular Veto vs Pocket Veto Explained

SHARE OF ALL VETOES BY TYPE, THROUGH JULY 2019 (each █ = 5%)
Regular vetoes | █████████████ 58.6%
Pocket vetoes  | ████████ 41.4%

Source: Congressional Research Service, Regular Vetoes and Pocket Vetoes: In Brief; US Senate; Congress.gov.

A regular veto sends the bill back to the chamber where it started. The president usually attaches a message of objections. That chamber can vote to override, and if it succeeds the other chamber votes next. A failed House vote ends the process, and the Senate does not need to vote. Through July 2019, the Congressional Research Service counted 1,510 regular vetoes, which is 58.6% of the total.

A pocket veto works differently. If Congress adjourns during the 10-day window and the president does not sign, the bill dies without any chance of override. The CRS counted 1,066 pocket vetoes, or 41.4%. Modern presidents use them rarely. Clinton issued 1 and Carter used 18, but Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden used none. The shift away from pocket vetoes also changed the math for Congress, since nearly every modern veto can now be tested in an override vote. Presidents now return bills with messages even when they claim a pocket veto. A bill left unsigned while Congress remains in session simply becomes law after 10 days, so a president cannot kill a bill through silence alone. A successful override also makes the bill law without the president’s signature.

US Presidential Vetoes by President 2026: Most Vetoes in History

TOTAL VETOES BY PRESIDENT (each █ = 25 vetoes)
Roosevelt  | █████████████████████████ 635
Cleveland  | ███████████████████████ 584
Truman     | ██████████ 250
Eisenhower | ███████ 181
Grant      | ███ 93
Reagan     | ███ 78
Ford       | ██ 66
Coolidge   | ██ 50

Source: The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, data through January 8, 2026; Cleveland totals combine his two terms.

Roosevelt vetoed 635 bills across more than two terms, with 372 regular vetoes and 263 pocket vetoes. Grover Cleveland issued 584 in two separate terms, 414 in the first and 170 in the second. Truman followed with 250, and Eisenhower with 181. Pocket vetoes drove Eisenhower’s count, with 108 of his 181 falling in that category. Roosevelt’s pocket vetoes numbered 263, more than Truman’s entire career total of 250. Those four presidents account for most of the historical total, about 63% of all vetoes, and all of them served in a time when pocket vetoes were common.

The pattern has changed. Reagan issued 78 vetoes and Ford 66, and Congress overrode 9 of Reagan’s and 12 of Ford’s. Presidents since Clinton have issued far fewer, with George W. Bush at 12 and Obama at 12. The drop coincides with the near end of pocket vetoes, which once made up a large share of the total.

Veto Override Rates by President 2026: Which Presidents Lost the Most Vetoes

OVERRIDES AS SHARE OF A PRESIDENT'S VETOES (each █ = 2%)
Pierce      | ████████████████████████████ 55.6%
A. Johnson  | ██████████████████████████ 51.7%
G.W. Bush   | █████████████████ 33.3%
Ford        | █████████ 18.2%
Nixon       | ████████ 16.3%
Reagan      | ██████ 11.5%
Trump I     | █████ 10.0%
Obama       | ████ 8.3%
Clinton     | ███ 5.4%
Roosevelt   | █ 1.4%

Source: Calculated from The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, data through January 8, 2026.

Override rates track presidential weakness. Pierce and Andrew Johnson lost more than half of their vetoes. Johnson faced a Republican-led Congress after the Civil War, and lawmakers overrode 15 of his 29 vetoes, including 6 in the 39th Congress and 9 in the 40th. Pierce lost 5 of 9, all in the 34th Congress, where his party held only 35.5% of House seats. These two cases show that overrides cluster when a president loses the support of his own party.

Modern rates run lower. Ford lost 12 of 66, or 18.2%, in a Congress with large Democratic majorities after Watergate. Nixon lost 7 of 43. Reagan lost 9 of 78. Trump’s first-term rate was 10.0%, with the single loss coming on the defense authorization bill. Roosevelt’s rate of 1.4% reflects overwhelming majorities in his own party, with Democrats holding between 51.0% and 76.8% of House seats during his terms. The percentages here are calculated from totals, not taken from the source’s separate success-rate column. Pocket vetoes are included in the denominator, so presidents who relied on them show lower override shares than their regular-veto record alone would produce. Use the table for broad comparison rather than precise ranking.

Modern Presidential Vetoes 2026: Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden

VETOES BY RECENT PRESIDENTS (each █ = 1 veto)
Clinton    | █████████████████████████████████████ 37
Biden      | █████████████ 13
Bush       | ████████████ 12
Obama      | ████████████ 12
Trump I    | ██████████ 10
Trump II   | ██ 2

Source: The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara, data through January 8, 2026.

Clinton leads the modern group with 37 vetoes, 36 regular and 1 pocket, and Congress overrode 2. Bush issued 12 regular vetoes and lost 4, all in the 110th Congress after Democrats took both chambers in 2006. That timing offers a parallel to the situation Trump faces in 2027, when Democrats take both chambers.

Obama issued 12 vetoes and lost 1, which came in the 114th Congress, when his party held 43.2% of House seats and 46% of Senate seats. Biden issued 13 and lost none. Trump issued 10 in his first term, and 1 was overridden. All recent vetoes have been regular vetoes, since modern presidents return bills with messages. The Biden record shows the other side of the pattern. A president can sustain vetoes when his party holds enough seats in at least one chamber.

Trump Vetoes in 2026: First Vetoes of the Second Term and Override Results

HOUSE OVERRIDE VOTE ON COLORADO BILL, JANUARY 2026 (each █ = 10 votes)
Votes to override | ████████████████████████▌ 248
Votes needed      | █████████████████████████████ 290

Source: The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara; CNBC; US Senate, 2026.

Trump’s first two second-term vetoes survived House override votes in January 2026. The Colorado bill failed 248-177, with 1 member voting present. That left the House 42 votes short of the 290 needed with all members voting. The Florida bill would have moved a tract of Everglades land to the Miccosukee Tribe. Its override also failed.

The outcome surprised observers, since both bills had passed Congress by unanimous voice vote. Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd of Colorado said the veto should give every member pause. Hurd, a co-sponsor, said an override would reassert the authority of Congress. The veto angered some Republican lawmakers from the state. The result shows that a unanimous voice vote does not predict a successful override. Members who agree on a bill in committee often switch when a recorded override vote puts them against the president. The votes also came hours after the Senate advanced a measure to curtail Trump’s military action in Venezuela, so Congress was testing its limits on several fronts at once.

Veto Override Math After the 2026 Midterm Elections: Votes Needed in 2027

VOTES NEEDED VS DEMOCRATIC SEATS, 2027 (each █ = 10 seats)
House needed (all voting)    | █████████████████████████████ 290
House Democrats, projected   | █████████████████████████ 250
Senate needed (all voting)   | ███████ 67
Senate Democrats, current    | █████ 54

Source: FindLaw, November 5, 2026; The New Republic; CBS News projections; AP Senate count; Congressional Research Service.

An override in the House needs 290 votes when all 435 members vote. Democrats were projected at 250 seats as of November 5, with reports of a path toward about 260. At 260, Democrats would need about 30 Republican votes. At 250, they would need 40. The Senate needs 67 votes. Democrats hold 54 and could reach 56 if they win Mississippi and Alaska, which means 11 to 13 Republican senators would have to join them.

Trump has said he will use the veto. He posted a red cap reading “VETO” on election night and wrote that if Republicans did not win, he would “veto everything.” Cronkite News noted that Trump could not have delivered the One Big Beautiful Bill Act without Republican majorities in both chambers. The math favors him on most party-line bills. A bill that passes the House with 250 Democratic votes and almost no Republican support falls 40 votes short of an override. In the Senate, 54 Democrats leave the party 13 votes short of 67. It becomes harder for him on bipartisan measures, such as the two bills that passed by voice vote before his vetoes. Those cases show where overrides become possible, even though the January 2026 votes failed. Impeachment follows a separate rule. The House needs a simple majority to impeach, and the Senate needs two-thirds to convict. A veto override and a conviction both depend on a supermajority, which makes cross-party support the deciding factor in each.

US Presidential Veto 2026 – Frequently Asked Questions

What Is a US Presidential Veto?

A US Presidential Veto is the president’s power under the Constitution’s Presentment Clause to reject a bill passed by Congress. The president has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to act. A vetoed bill does not become law unless Congress overrides the veto with two-thirds votes in both chambers.

How Many Votes Does Congress Need to Override a Veto?

Two-thirds of the members voting in each chamber must vote to override. If all 435 House members and all 100 senators vote, that means 290 House votes and 67 Senate votes. The chamber where the bill began votes first. Neither chamber must hold override votes.

What Is a Pocket Veto?

A pocket veto happens when Congress adjourns during the 10-day period and the president does not sign the bill. Congress cannot override it, so lawmakers must pass a new bill to try again. The CRS counted 1,066 pocket vetoes through July 2019, or 41.4% of all vetoes.

Which President Vetoed the Most Bills?

Franklin D. Roosevelt vetoed 635 bills, the most of any president, and 263 of them were pocket vetoes. Grover Cleveland issued 584 across two terms. Truman issued 250 and Eisenhower 181.

How Often Does Congress Override a Veto?

Rarely, and the rate varies by era. Presidents with weak party support in Congress lose more often, as Johnson and Pierce did. Congress has overridden about 112 of roughly 2,599 vetoes, which is 4.3%. Andrew Johnson had the most overrides, 15. Biden had 13 vetoes and none were overridden.

How Many Times Has Trump Used the Veto?

Trump has vetoed 12 bills in two terms, 10 in his first term and 2 in his second. Congress overrode 1 of the first-term vetoes, the defense authorization bill, in January 2021. The second-term vetoes survived House override votes in January 2026.

Can Democrats Override a Trump Veto After the 2026 Midterm Elections?

Only with Republican help. Democrats need 290 House votes and 67 Senate votes if all members vote. They are projected at about 250 to 260 House seats and 54 to 56 Senate seats, so they would need roughly 30 to 40 House Republicans and 11 to 13 Republican senators.

Is There a Line-Item Veto?

No. The Supreme Court struck down the Line Item Veto Act in 1998. A president must accept or reject an entire bill. That is why appropriations bills often carry the largest veto fights.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.