Can President Donald Trump have his cake and eat it too?
Congress approved a border security compromise this week that would avert a second painful government shutdown, but leave America’s southern border dangerously unguarded.
So President Donald Trump is expected to declare a national emergency to secure ALL the funds necessary to build a concrete barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Moments before Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke at the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took to the Senate floor to announce Trump’s decisions to sign the bill and declare an emergency. McConnell said he would support Trump’s emergency declaration.
Money in the Congressional funding bill for border security is far below the $5.7 billion Trump insisted he needed, which sparked the move. Congresses budget would finance just a quarter of the 200-plus miles the White House said is needed.
The Senate passed the budget legislation 83-16 Thursday, with both parties solidly aboard. The House followed with a 300-128 tally, with Trump’s signature planned Friday. Trump will speak Friday morning in the Rose Garden about border security, the White House said.
Trump is expected to announce that he will be spending roughly $8 billion on border barriers — combining the money approved by Congress with funding he plans to repurpose through executive actions, including a national emergency, said a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The money is expected to come from funds targeted for military construction and counterdrug efforts.
White House staff and congressional Republicans have said that besides an emergency, Trump might assert other authorities that could conceivably put him within reach of billions of dollars. The money could come from funds targeted for other projects.
Congressional aides say there is approximately $21 billion allocated for military construction that Trump could use if he declares a national emergency.
McConnell argued that the bill delivered victories for Trump over Pelosi. These included overcoming her pledge to not fund the wall at all and rejecting a Democratic proposal for numerical limits on detaining some immigrants.
In an joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said such a declaration would be “a lawless act, a gross abuse of the power of the presidency and a desperate attempt to distract” from Trump’s failure to force Mexico to pay for the wall, as he’s promised for years.
“Congress will defend our constitutional authorities,” they said.
Democratic state attorneys general said they’d consider legal action to block Trump. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello told the president on Twitter “we’ll see you in court” if he makes the declaration.
Seems the Democrats are getting a little fraught.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.