Trump says there’s a ‘good chance’ he’ll declare national emergency

President Donald Trump said on Friday that there is a good chance that he could declare a national emergency to get the funds needed to build the wall on the US-Mexico border because the Democrats did not seem to move toward an agreement that considers the money.

“We’re not going anywhere with them,” Trump said during an event at the White House.

“I think there’s a good chance we’re going to do it,” he said, referring to an emergency declaration that could allow him to use funds that Congress approved for other purposes.

Trump made the comments a day after Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters: “There will be no money for the wall.”

Those words are feared to signify that Trump, as he had previously warned, will declare a national emergency on the southern border that will allow him to obtain funds without the approval of the legislators.

Pelosi criticized that approach on Thursday, saying that Trump “wants everything for himself” and “wants Congress to be completely irrelevant.”

Meanwhile, Trump and his advisers in the White House have continued making preparations for the national emergency order this week in case the negotiators in the Capitol do not manage to reach an agreement of their pleasure in the middle of the month.

That included a meeting on Tuesday between the president and his top consultants to review the various options he has to sign the order and set the scenarios for how it would take effect, revealed White House officials.

However, his main advisers, including son-in-law Jared Kushner, continue to warn that the action will be immediately challenged before the courts.

The question arises whether the president can declare a national emergency on the border when many of his critics say that the situation in that area is not as critical as the president wants to say.

REALITY

•     The president does have the legal authority to declare a national emergency.
•     The National Emergency Law of 1976 does not define what an emergency is, nor does it establish a specific criterion to declare it. The legislation only raises the requirements of the procedure that must be followed to make the declaration.
•     The law requires the president to formally present to Congress his national emergency declaration, to specify the legal authorities he is invoking.
•     Congress can undo that statement with a veto-proof majority vote.
•     Although the president has broad powers to reallocate federal funds after declaring a national emergency, there are still laws that must be followed to do so.
•     Therefore, the declaration will not automatically give Trump the nearly $ 6,000 million he wants for the border wall.

The president has insisted that a wall is needed for border security.