US President Donald Trump, facing the prospect within days of the longest US government shutdown in history, was considering declaring a national emergency that would likely escalate a policy dispute with Democrats over his proposed US-Mexico border wall into a court test of presidential power.
To escape a political trap of his own making, Trump on Thursday hinted strongly that he might declare an emergency so that he could bypass the US Congress to get funding for his wall, which was a central promise of his 2016 election campaign.
Trump is demanding that the Congress provide US$5.7 billion in US taxpayer funding for the wall.
Photo: Reuters
That is opposed by Democrats in Congress, who have called the wall an ineffective, outdated answer to a complex problem.
The standoff has left a quarter of the federal government closed down and hundreds of thousands of federal employees staying home on furlough or working for no pay and set to miss their paychecks.
The partial federal government shutdown yesterday entered its 21st day. It is to become the longest shutdown ever today.
With no Capitol Hill compromise in sight, Trump on Thursday during a trip to the Texas border publicly ruminated about declaring an emergency.
A close Trump confidant judged that the time for such a step had come.
“It is time for President Trump to use emergency powers to fund the construction of a border wall/barrier. I hope it works,” US Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement
The Wall Street Journal, NBC and the Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that the White House had asked the US Army Corps of Engineers to look into diverting money from its budget toward the wall and to explore how fast construction could begin under an emergency declaration.
Reuters could not immediately verify the accuracy of the reports.
Critics of the national emergency strategy have said that it might be illegal. In any case, it was almost certain to trigger an immediate court challenge from Democrats, including an accusation of trying to circumvent the Congress’ power over the national purse strings.
That would push the wall impasse into the courts, allowing the government to be fully reopened while the judges weigh the case, which could take months.
“After the emergency announcement, the path toward construction via executive order may be as unclear as a storm at midnight. But it will at least allow the president to move out of the corner he’s boxed himself into,” said Charles Gabriel, analyst at strategy firm Capital Alpha Partners.
An emergency declaration would come with risks. Even some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have signaled worries about such an action. Given that the US Constitution gives the Congress the power to set spending priorities and appropriate money, they worry about a tough legal fight and an unwise precedent.
“If Trump crosses this Rubicon, what would prevent a Democratic president from declaring a ‘national emergency’ on Day 1 of their administration on climate change and/or healthcare?” Chris Krueger, an analyst at strategy firm Cowen Washington Research Group, asked in a commentary note.
US Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat who has had good relations with Trump, said that declaring a national emergency would be “wrong, but I think that’s his only way out.”
Manchin said that if Trump made the declaration, the Congress might immediately move to pass bills funding the various agencies, knowing that the president would then be able to sign them into law.
While some Republican senators have begun clamoring for an end to the shutdown, party leaders toeing Trump’s line this week have ignored the passage in the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives of funding bills for government agencies.
The House was expected to pass more such bills yesterday.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was