In an interview with the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, Trump was blunt regarding his thoughts on Congress funding the wall in the next three weeks, suggesting he doesn’t believe Congress will come through for him:
NY POST – President Trump said he doubts congressional negotiators will be able to break the deadlock on funding for a border wall and claimed that another government shutdown is “certainly an option.”
“I personally think it’s less than 50-50, but you have a lot of very good people on that board,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published late Sunday.
The president was referring to the bipartisan group of 17 lawmakers appointed to try to reach a compromise on wall funding and other immigration issues in the three-week window before the next possible government shutdown.
Trump also suggested he wouldn’t take much less than what he’s asking to build the wall, because he says it needs to be done right.
As far as DACA goes, Trump didn’t sound to optimistic about using that to get the wall funding…
Trump also said he was skeptical about any deal that would involve trading wall money for protections for the so-called “Dreamers,” people brought to the US illegally by their parents as children.
“I doubt it,” he said in response to a question about “Dreamers.” “That’s a separate subject to be taken up at a separate time.”
It’s looking more and more like declaring a national emergency is the option Trump is going to end up choosing. If he doesn’t believe Congress is going to come through for him, then there’s only one course of action left to take in three weeks.
As I’ve said before, the wall needs to be built and completed. Congress is the best way to handle it, but I’m not against Trump declaring a national emergency to get it done. I know some are weary about Trump using his statutory authority to go around Congress, and for most matters I would be very weary too. But protecting the border is one of the fundamental duties of the executive branch and Democrats are clearly playing politics with the wall funding. After all, many of these same Democrats gave Obama almost a trillion dollars in his first year in a phony stimulus deal.
It’s not as if the National Emergencies Act doesn’t have checks and balances. If Congress doesn’t like Trump declaring a national emergency, they can always vote to terminate it with a veto-proof majority.
And of course, as we all know, the courts will be involved as well. I would hope, however, that Trump can get this issue fast-tracked to the Supreme Court. That’s where the ultimate decision will be made and it might as well get there sooner than later.