On Friday night, Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the US/Mexico border. Then, he jetted off to his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida for a weekend of golf. So, um… where’s the emergency?
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For months, Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency just to fulfill a campaign promise to his base and build a “KEEP OUT MEXICANS” (AKA “monument to white supremacy”) wall along the southern US border. Initially, he tried to bully Congress into giving him the $5 billion needed for the wall by shutting down the government for the longest furlough in US history. When that failed miserably and several conservative commentators berated him for allowing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to publicly whip/embarrass him, the thin-skinned ‘Donald’ had to find a way to save face and still get his way.
Trump found the answer to his problems on Friday night when he declared a national emergency along the border — a move that will now allow him to singlehandedly raid funds from the US military and other government agencies (without congressional approval) just to get the money he needs for his beloved wall.
So, what’s wrong with this picture? It’s FAKE NEWS!
Let’s face it: nobody on the planet believes there is an actual emergency at the southern border. Just take a look at the words and deeds of Donald Trump himself and you’ll have all the proof you need.
A legitimate emergency requires undivided, laser-focused attention. If the US government were under attack or some other real emergency, the President of the United States would be huddled in the White House Situation Room with his top military advisers handling the crisis.
So, what did Donald Trump do after he declared his emergency? He boarded Air Force One and flew to Florida for a playdate on the golf course.
Um, that’s not an emergency.
However, if that wasn’t enough just consider the words from Trump’s own mouth about why he declared a national emergency:
“I could build the wall over a longer period of time,” Trump said during remarks in the White House Rose Garden. “I didn’t need to do this. But I’d rather do it much faster.”
HUH???
Donald Trump effectively admitted there is NO emergency, that he never needed to actually declare one, but the only reason he did was to circumvent Congress and get his way in order to build the wall and satisfy his base.
Needless to say, folks from all political spectrums are not happy.
“The only national emergency is our president is an idiot!” – Conservative commentator Ann Coulter
“The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public, using every remedy available,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint Democratic statement. “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. The Congress cannot let the President shred the Constitution.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said he intends to support a resolution to terminate the emergency declaration and will “pursue all other available legal options.”
Although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he supports the emergency declaration, several Republican lawmakers are seething mad and have publicly and privately expressed their dissatisfaction with any president acting as if an equal branch of government were irrelevant.
“Declaring a national emergency is unnecessary, unwise and inconsistent with the US Constitution,” Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said Friday. “Our founders chose not to create a chief executive with the power to tax the people and spend their money any way he chooses.”
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In addition to political pushback, several states and civic organizations are already preparing a myriad of lawsuits against Trump and his fake emergency.
The American Civil Liberties Union and advocacy group Public Citizen have already filed lawsuits against the emergency declaration.
El Paso County, Texas — which Donald Trump visited last week to make his case for a border emergency — said it will join the lawsuits from several nonprofit groups.
California and New York state officials spent the weekend working on legal challenges.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, said he is devising a state lawsuit which will focus on the wall’s potential damage to state land-use and environmental policies in the border region, as well as the possible diversion of funds from joint federal-state law-enforcement programs targeting cross-border crime.
“There are going to be multiple environmental and state and federal ownership issues that still need to be litigated,” Mr. Balderas said.
For all the talk regarding congressional pushback and the host of lawsuits headed his way, the golf-lounging Trump was unfazed and predicted he’ll eventually come out the winner in court.
“We will possibly get a bad ruling. And then we’ll get another bad ruling. And then we’ll end up in the Supreme Court and hopefully we’ll get a fair shake,” he said.
The Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks were national emergencies. A border wall to maintain a white majority is not.
Before Friday, a presidential national emergency has only been declared 3 times in US history. In 1993 and 1994, an emergency was declared to prevent citizen participation in the encouragement of weapons of mass destruction. Then, in 2009, an emergency was declared to prevent a national influenza epidemic. Now, Donald Trump has declared an emergency just to satisfy his base and one-up Nancy Pelosi.
Will Donald Trump get away with his fake national emergency? Will various lawsuits prevent the circumvention of Congress and return equal power to the 3 branches of government? Or, is Trump right that this will make its way all the way to the Supreme Court where his latest appointees will save his butt and hand him his way?
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We all know this is a farce. Trump shot himself in the foot when he admitted he didn’t have to do this. That is evidence they are going to use in all the lawsuits. I think this fight is only beginning and is going to go one a long time.