Looks like Donald Trump is ready for a legal fight. In a rather dramatic fashion Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that Trump is prepared to sign a bipartisan spending bill, averting another government shutdown. But (and it’s but) he said Trump will also declare a national emergency. This move would allow the president to obtain wall funding without Congress’s approval. Democrats have vowed to fight this initiative…which likely won’t ever see the light of day.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the news saying, “President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action—including a national emergency—to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border.”
According to The Washington Post, the new bill “would fund nine Cabinet departments and dozens of other agencies through Sept. 30, removing — for now — the threat of another government shutdown and political brinkmanship over Trump’s demands to fund a U.S.-Mexico border wall.” It also provides $1.375 billion for the construction of 55 miles of fencing along the Mexican border in Texas. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says the deal is a “reasonable compromise” that funds “smart border security initiatives that both parties have always supported.”
But this compromise wa enough for Trump, who originally demanded $5.7 billion for 234 miles of steel walls up and down the border. Bloomberg reports that McConnell “indicated to [Trump] [he’s] going to support the national emergency declaration.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released a joint statement condemning the president’s actions:
“Declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that President Trump broke his core promise to have Mexico pay for his wall.
“It is yet another demonstration of President Trump’s naked contempt for the rule of law. This is not an emergency, and the president’s fearmongering doesn’t make it one. He couldn’t convince Mexico, the American people or their elected representatives to pay for his ineffective and expensive wall, so now he’s trying an end-run around Congress in a desperate attempt to put taxpayers on the hook for it. The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities.”
There are also some people on Trump’s side of the aisle who agree a national emergency is not warranted.