With negotiations with Democrats going nowhere, President Trump says he may declare a state of emergency in a bid to end the government shutdown and build a border wall.
Following failed negotiations to re-open the federal government, President Donald Trump may declare a state of emergency to bypass Congress and fund his long-desired border wall.
According to the New York Times, the partial shutdown is nearing the end of its third week. No further negotiations are scheduled between the White House and Democratic leaders, who rebuffed the president’s stance on immigration affairs. A Wednesday round-table in the Situation Room ‘ended abruptly’ when Trump stormed away from the table, infuriated that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said liberals won’t budge on border wall funding.
Afterward, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the president threw something akin to a ‘temper tantrum’—an allegation Trump quickly took to Twitter to deny.
Cryin Chuck told his favorite lie when he used his standard sound bite that I “slammed the table & walked out of the room. He had a temper tantrum.” Because I knew he would say that, and after Nancy said no to proper Border Security, I politely said bye-bye and left, no slamming!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2019
“Cryin Chuck told his favorite lie when he used his standard sound bite that I “slammed the table & walked out of the room. He had a temper tantrum”,” Trump tweeted. “Because I knew he would say that, and after Nancy said no to proper Border Security, I politely said bye-bye and left, no slamming!”
“I didn’t shame the table,” Trump said a day later. “I should have.”
Trump also elected to address his critics, who have pointed out that he’s trying to requisition taxpayer funds to build a wall along the border.
Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump insisted that Mexico would “pay for the wall.” Now he claims he never meant to suggest just that.
“When during the campaign I would say, ‘Mexico is going to pay for it,’ obviously, I never said this, and I never meant they are going to write out a check,” Trump said, managing to contradict himself twice in a sentence and thrice in relation to his campaign promises.
And the commander-in-chief was again contradicted by his own aides, who admitted that Americans will be the ones financing a border wall. White House strategic communications director Mercedes Schlapp acknowledged just that in a CNN interview.
However, Schlapp juxtaposed the cost of a border wall with the estimated price of illegal immigration.
“Yes,” Schlapp told CNN, when asked whether taxpayers would fund Trump’s pet project. “And you know what else taxpayers are paying for? The financial burden of illegal immigration.”
Trump’s tried to posit a new North American trade agreement as akin to Mexico funding the wall. The benefits, say Trump, would more than compensate taxpayers for the expense.
“I view that as absolutely Mexico is paying for the wall,” Trump said.
He repeated the same on Tuesday, trumpeting that, “The wall will also be paid for indirectly by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico.”
CNN notes that the trade deal has yet to be approved by Congress.
Sources
Democrats’ Cynical ‘No’ on Immigration
Taxpayers will pay for wall, White House aide acknowledges
Trump, Heading to the Border, Suggests He Will Declare an Emergency to Fund the Wall
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