Donald Trump has warned his people to prepare for him declaring a national emergency in order to get his memorial wall along the U.S.’s southern border with Mexico. He plans to use the military to build it and lift disaster relief funds to pay for his wall. Senate Democrats have beaten him to the punch, but will their plan work?
Senators Tom Udall (D-NM) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced the Restrictions Against Illegitimate Declarations for Emergency Re-appropriations Act (RAIDER). The purpose of it is to restrain Trump from taking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ funds and the military construction funding and using it, according to The Daily Beast:
‘…for the construction of barriers, land acquisition, or any other associated activities on the southern border without specific statutory authorization from Congress.’
Two senators who have declared they are running in the 2020 presidential election Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) support the new bill along with 12 other Democrats, including the New Mexico senators.
Senator Udall noted that should the president use his emergency declaration power for his wall, he and his colleagues would take Trump to court:
‘Congress should not wait for the courts to act. We must stand up and assert our role as a co-equal branch of government, and we must prevent the president from going around Congress to raid critical funds … for a politically-motivated, unjustified national emergency declaration that isn’t based in reality.’
Then, Senator Heinrich said the bill was meant to:
‘…prevent funds designated for critical military construction and disaster response.’
The wall would cost the American public about $35 billion, according to Democrats. Trump would take the money from the 2018 fiscal funding, which is “subject to raiding.”
Trump urged the reporters assigned to the White House to “listen closely” during the State of the Union Address:
‘I think there’s a good chance we’ll have to do that (declare a national emergency).’
POTUS could make his case for a national emergency before the American people during his State of the Union Address and then declare it. If he does, the Congress might decide to pass a resolution of disapproval, but that would be unlikely to block Trump. He has tended to disregard such actions.
Both Republicans and Democrats have anticipated that the battle in court could delay Trump’s wall for quite some time. However, POTUS does not adhere to traditional norms. He acts more like a dictator than a president.
The president certainly does not listen to his intelligence community. His top adviser has been a farthest-right syndicated columnist Ann Coulter, plus he listens to foreign leaders such as Turkey’s president Recep Erdoğan.
MSNBC reported that according to a Time magazine report:
‘In the wake of President Donald Trump’s renewed attacks on the U.S. intelligence community this week, senior intelligence briefers are breaking two years of silence to warn that the President is endangering American security with what they say is a stubborn disregard for their assessments.
‘Citing multiple in-person episodes, these intelligence officials say Trump displays what one called “willful ignorance” when presented with analyses generated by America’s $81 billion-a-year intelligence services. The officials, who include analysts who prepare Trump’s briefs and the briefers themselves, describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible.’
Trump has caused the nation to face some troubling time.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
