The White House is reportedly seriously considering legal options and rationale should President Trump declare a national emergency to construct a border wall.
Trump gets closer to his last resort
Earlier today, President Trump told a scrum of reporters that he’s increasingly inclined to bypass Congress, including open-borders loving Democrats, and declare a national emergency to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “I’ll probably will do it, maybe definitely,” he informed the press, using three adverbs that, while partially jumbling the meaning, clearly show he’s more than likely to use the option should Democrats continue to oppose his plan.
President Trump reiterates that he may declare a national emergency if Congress does not meet his demand for billions of dollars to construct a wall along the U.S. border https://t.co/UVwzXHkymv pic.twitter.com/DbE4HkIujr
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) January 10, 2019
So far on Capitol Hill, Republicans have failed to negotiate with Democrats and work out a feasible deal the President would support. (RELATED: GOP Senators Pitch Mega Immigration Deal To End Prolonged Government Shutdown.)
White House exploring legal options
Trump isn’t just using bluster to goad Democrats to come to his side. The White House is, according to one CNN reporter, actually prepping a legal defense for Trump to declare a national emergency to build the wall. Jim Sciutto reports:
Here you go: WH counsel’s office is prepping legal justification for national emergency, including advising WH to ramp up talk of a humanitarian & security “crisis”. WH lawyers say the more the term is used, the more citations they will have in filing legal defense -CNN reporting
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) January 10, 2019
Clearly, the President is serious about using his executive authority and any means at his disposal to build the wall. The Democrats, if they thought they could stop him by holding out, are about to watch the wall get built anyway, granted there’s no legal issues against the President.
We’ll just have to wait and see what the courts say if Trump pulls the trigger and declare a national emergency.
