Trump’s only option: Declare a National Emergency, build the wall, and declare victory
Trump could spend double what he sought from Pelosi for the border wall. He who laughs last, laughs best.
Trump is widely portrayed as having suffered a devastating loss to Nancy Pelosi by agreeing to a continuing resolution without additional funding for a border wall in some form.
And certainly, Pelosi is crowing about her victory. She’s also emboldened, accusing Trump of being subjected to blackmail by Putin. (Exact quote: “What does Putin have on @realDonaldTrump, politically, personally or financially?”).
Trump’s strategic error was making a government shutdown, even if in reality it was more of a slowdown of a portion of government, the mechanism to extract concessions from Democrats. If that was his goal, and not just a long-term ploy, Trump was destined to lose.
Republicans cannot win government shutdown fights because no matter who caused it or who is unreasonable, the media blames Republicans. As satisfying and justified as a partial government shrinkage and slowdown may be, it’s a losing battle.
So a government shutdown never was going to get Trump a wall from Democrats, who are never going to give Trump ANY wall. Or fence. Or steel barrier. For at least two reasons.
First, a wall would work. That is a real problem for those who favor either completely open borders or the current status quo of mass illegal cross-border migration. A wall wouldn’t be a cure all, but the arguments against it are mostly strawmen. It wouldn’t stop 100% of those attempting to enter illegally through the Mexican border. Fine, but it would stop most, and would allow the border patrol to focus on fewer areas. It also would serve as a deterrent. Another argument is that a border wall also would not stop visa overstays. Duh. It’s a border wall meant to keep out people who don’t have even a visa from illegally crossing the border. Let’s beef up tracking people who overstay their visas AND build a wall.
Second, and most important politically for Democrats and Republican NeverTrumpers, they see the failure of Trump to build the wall as a way to break Trump politically. It was a core promise. I think most Trump supporters understand that he has been undercut on the issue not only by Democrats but also by Republicans, but that won’t prevent the failure from being used as a wedge issue.
So where are we heading? The lack of border wall funding will be a continuing oozing loss for Trump, unless he does something drastic. That drastic action would be a declaration of a National Emergency to build the wall. It may be that Trump has gone through the hopeless task of trying to convince Democrats and the futile slowing-down of government, to set the stage for drastic action.
There are currently 31 active National Emergencies, and 58 national emergencies have been declared since the National Emergencies Act of 1976 was signed into law by President Gerald Ford.
Most of the National Emergencies don’t sound like “national emergencies” in any real sense (see links above). They sound more like serious situations where the president uses the powers given him by statute and the Constitution to address national security problems.
Trump’s authority would come not only from the National Emergencies Act, but also his power to control who may enter the U.S. and to protect the nation, as spelled out in the Supreme Court’s decision in the travel order case:
For more than a century, this Court has recognized that the admission and exclusion of foreign nationals is a “fundamental sovereign attribute exercised by the Government’s political departments largely immune from judicial control.” Fiallo v. Bell, 430 U. S. 787, 792 (1977); see Harisiades v. Shaughnessy, 342 U. S. 580, 588–589 (1952) (“[A]ny policy toward aliens is vitally and intricately interwoven with contemporaneous policies in regard to the conduct of foreign relations [and] the war power.”). Because decisions in these matters may implicate “relations with foreign powers,” or involve “classifications defined in the light of changing political and economic circumstances,”such judgments “are frequently of a character more appropriate to either the Legislature or the Executive.” Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U. S. 67, 81 (1976).
Trump reportedly is preparing a National Emergency Order and has found $7 billion that legally could be spent under such an Order. Jess Bravin at The Wall Street Journal writes that Trump may have as much as $13 billion available for a wall under a National Emergencies Act order:
Currently, $13.3 billion in the Pentagon budget may be available, according to a congressional aide, enough to cover the $5 billion that Mr. Trump is seeking for the border wall. That would have to be diverted from projects such as military housing that Congress previously authorized.
Law Professor Steve Vladeck writes of Trump’s broad statutory authority:
As most Americans have been surprised to discover, the National Emergencies Act gave the president the power to declare a “national emergency” (and to thereby unlock hundreds of special statutory authorities that are only available in such cases), without defining what a “national emergency” actually is. In the process, Congress left the door wide open, at least legally, for presidents to use the act as a pretext for pursuing policy objectives that, whatever their merits, have little to do with meeting and responding to a genuine emergency….
The tragic irony of the National Emergencies Act is that, when it was enacted, it was meant to constrain presidential emergency power, not expand it. Congress put a one-year time limit on all national emergencies (while allowing them to be renewed solely by presidential proclamation), and it created a fast-track procedure whereby a simple majority of the House and the Senate could quickly vote to terminate any existing national emergency — even if the president disagreed.
Congress did not try to define what would count as a national emergency, concluding, quite correctly, that it would be impossible to anticipate all of the myriad episodes, attacks, disasters and other crises that might validly trigger these special, standby authorities. Instead, Congress assumed that the statute’s procedural checks (and political safeguards) would be sufficient both formally and practically to deter future presidents from abusing the powers that came with an emergency declaration.
It seems pretty clear, even from left-leaning legal commentary, that Trump would have the statutory authority to declare the border crisis to be a National Emergency, and assuming he could find funds under the ancillary statutory powers, to spend the money even if there is no new congressional spending authorization. I haven’t seen any analysis of constitutional questions, but if the President is spending funds already authorized by Congress, I’m not seeing the likelihood of a successful constitutional challenge.
One argument I’m seeing a lot of from Republicans is that by using the National Emergencies Act for spending, Trump may be enabling a future Democrat president to do the same for climate change or single-payer. Such an argument demonstrates how differently different groups within the GOP see the illegal immigration issue: To establishment types, it’s just another issue; to Trump supporters and many others, it’s an existential crisis over whether we have a country. For the former, it’s a time to be cautious fearing future abuse, for the latter it’s now or never because the current trajectory is disastrous, a Flight 93 political issue. I’m with the latter.
And no, this is not what Obama did with DACA and immigration. Obama unilaterally initiated a program in violation of the substance of federal immigration laws. There are laws barring people from being in the country illegally, there is no law barring a president from building a border wall.
Politically, Trump has no choice.
The people urging Trump to give up on wall funding are the same people who urged Trump to abandon Brett Kavanaugh when the smear campaign hit. Trump stuck with Kavanaugh and it helped salvage the Senate in a Democrat year. So too with building the wall and 2020. The way to lose is to demoralize your supporters and to embolden your opponents.
In mid-February, after Nancy Pelosi and Democrats again refuse to fund the wall, Trump must declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, and spend whatever funds he can find under the statute to build the wall.
If Trump can find the $5.7 billion he wanted from Congress, he can declare victory. If he finds much more than his initial $5.7 billion request, he should do it and thank Nancy Pelosi for forcing him to find all that extra money for even more wall mileage.
He who laughs last, laughs best.
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Comments
I’m still in this fight with him. I wish he had been advised by you.
From what I have seen with Trump, he is not likely to accept defeat.
Agree. And further, he has anticipated the variety of possible responses from Democrats and prepared a reaction to each. This isn’t over and, much to the relief of a great many on our southern border, we could have a barrier and, as a bonus, possibly rid ourselves of Pelosi and Schumer (be still my heart!).
45 is no 43.
“If Trump can find the $5.7 billion he wanted from Congress, he can declare victory.”
Mexico is profiting from their illegals sending in excess of $70 billion to family and relatives. If Trump can extract a healthy chunk of that cash flow, say 20% or maybe more, then illegals will be paying for the wall, and to the degree that Mexico is losing that revenue, they would be paying for the wall.
That would be another campaign promise kept, Mexico paying for the wall.
Yeah, I’m surprised we haven’t seen Congress tax remittances. They tax everything else Americans do. But somehow illegal aliens are SPECIAL, and get SPECIAL treatment….
Are they magic illegal aliens? And why are they first class Americans and the rest of us dupes are second class?
Where can I go to give up my citizenship so I can pay no taxes and still work?
CloseTheFed:”They tax everything else Americans do”
That’s the thing, they just want Americans to pay money whether it’s ‘climate change’, the Iran deal, tariffs, defending Europe, or welfare for illegals.
I haven’t understood the lack of remittance taxes either yet. However, there has to be some stalemate somewhere that we aren’t seeing because both parties would likely be on board with it otherwise.
A couple of off the top of my tinfoil head possibilities:
-Would lead to uncontrollable (or too expensive to control) illegal smuggling methods that bypasses the tax system.
-Would ignite other trade-based wars
-Would cut off some dishonest and powerful rich group’s loophole
I am still in the fight for Trump too. I get really irked at him and particularly his advisers for muffing softball opportunities, but then I remind myself that he is on a thankless mission for the American people, to protect this Country. He is one of the few people in Washington that is trying to do something good, which naturally makes him vulnerable in that swamp of knaves, fools and Bolsheviks. They mock him and call him a racist. They project all their evils on him. It seems much of his own staff betray him and underserve him. But he keeps pushing forward, in spite of it all. Who else has done this? He makes mistakes, but he remains true to all of us. Remember that everything they do to him they want to do to us too. He may be one of the few, but he is fighting for many, and a lot of those he is fighting for don’t realize it.
Well, Trump had to right on down the line, and offer every possible opportunity.
He had to show due diligence, and leave no stone UN-turned.
Now, that has been done.
In 20 days, there will be and end to this.
This is what I have been hoping for, that Trump has baited them, while preparing to deliver a devastating defeat.
Sending the military in to build the wall, while instructing soldiers to start terminating anyone trying to illegally cross the border, and installing high end electronic countermeasures would send a very clear message. Enough BS.
Meanwhile, he has demonstrated the Democratic leadership cares only about its power and perks…and not the American people.
The victory dance the Democrats, media, and NeverTrumpers are doing usually proceeds the visit from the Karma Police.
Within minutes of Trump signing the temporary and conditional agreement to suspend the partial shutdown, Pelosi reneged on her end of the agreement. She immediately declared that “there would be no discussions until the government is re-opened”, there would be no SOTU, and there will never ever be a wall. Case closed.
Even worse (if that is possible), the usual suspect Republicans piled on with their “Trump caved!” meme. These threads right here on LI were rife with jimmy-legged “conservatives” once again abandoning the only guy who is fighting on “our” side. We really need drop the phony “conservative” crap and do some serious soul-searching to define who “our” side really is. My experience as a “conservative” has been like falling into a vat of worms.
I am 100% in agreement with the professor and you on this one. The Swamp communists believe they have won without a fight. Let’s force them to finally reveal themselves for what they are: uncompromising totalitarian tyrants. The time has come to go big and have that all-out fight. Let them experience “the fury of the patient man”. The first victims will be the Dem leadership at the hands of their “children of the corn”.
I have a different view. Writing that the President caved isn’t abandoning him, just pushing him in the opposite, conservative, direction from that recommended by the “Republicans” who have spent a career caving to whatever the Democrats wished for, or abandoning whatever had the slightest bit of effort required for success.
He gets accolades and appreciation when he’s right, but he shouldn’t get the same treatment when he appears to be wrong. If it plays out as just making sure all the “i”s are dotted and the “t”s are crossed for the courts, I’m good with that. But it would have to be only for the courts, because John and Jane Public will never know the facts as the MSM won’t tell them. And the case, once (if) he goes the Declaration of an Emergency route, needs to be brought in Texas (Fifth Circuit) because there will no doubt be one of the “usual suspects” in a Ninth Circuit District Court who will issue a Nationwide Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). That order can be ignored if he’s building in Texas and has a Fifth Circuit and/or Texas District Court order opposed to the CA/WA/HI order.
Phil:
It’s a libel to call those of us discouraged “never Trumpers.” I was one of the EARLIEST Trump supporters, though people here derided that support, in favor of Cruz, et al.
Also, notice Trump said he wasn’t going to do any mass deportations of the 11 million? Which is really over 20 million? Which means, in practice, that anyone that gets here now just gets lost in the ocean of humanity that is here illegally and claims to be part of that ocean, and Presto! they’re in line for amnesty.
Now he better build that wall, because all the foreigners with their eyes on living in America know that if they get here without being fingerprinted (I hope BP fingerprints!), they will at some point be legalized. Wake up.
Supporting Trump is like supporting the GOP over the dems – you don’t really have a viable choice, so you stick with him. At least he actually tries, while the GOP just puts on failure theatre.
Close The Fed: I don’t know about libel but everyone here has their own story. When these threads went NeverTrump, I chose to stay out of the discussion. I was a Ted Cruz guy at first too but he turned out to be so unlikable and desperate that it was easy to switch to Trump who was making heads explode like no one ever before. I will never regret it. It’s a miracle that Hillary isn’t president.
As to the mass deportations, they will never happen whether the number is 11m or 50m. The reason is that to do so would ignore several practical and philosophical realities with the biggest one being that it is not in our self-interest. The important thing to do is to know who they are and that they are becoming Americanized. By now, most of them were born here and don’t know any other country. And most of them (I know a few) are doing well. The ones who need to go are the criminals, the welfare dependent, those who’ve been here a long time and still don’t speak English and don’t care to learn, etc… And a lot of the illegals just over-stayed their visas because they have good jobs.
It is hurting our cause to be standing on such an absolute requirement on principle. Trump isn’t lying nor playing dumb. He is playing to win. Winning is getting control of our immigration and bringing compliance from those who are allowed entry and employers with enforcing citizenship requirements. Voter ID is also essential. Let’s not get hung up on mass deportations. We should have done that 30-40 years ago. It’s too late. It would be a big mistake.
In other words, Phil bought the lies of Bob Dole and the rest of the GOPe. Not a good look….
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/01/20/bob-dole-ted-cruz-donald-trump/79079408/
“Dole, a former Kansas senator, was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 1996.
Donald Trump would “probably work with Congress,” though, Dole mused, because he’s “kind of a deal maker.”
Dole characterized Cruz as an “extremist” unwilling to work with his own party. The Times’ Maggie Haberman notes that Dole’s comments reflect a larger tension that establishment Republicans feel with Cruz, who portrays himself on the campaign trail as their antithesis.
Last month, Dole told MSNBC that he might oversleep and not vote next November were Cruz the Republican nominee.”
According to the Congressional Research Service, POTUS has constitutional and statutory authority to build the wall without invoking emergency powers: https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/24/trump-wall-no-state-of-emergency/.
Anybody in the White House know anybody in CRS?
I’m not sure why the Pentagon could not just send in some combat engineers and SeaBees on a training mission to hone wall building skills. Just have it executed on the border. Private land would be an issue I suppose, but I’d bet many private landholders would cooperate.
Excellent examination of the issue at hand. I think it important, for history sake, and for style, for the President to have taken the steps he did, and to give as much as he dared prior to declaring the emergency. I agree, if a wall is to be built, a declaration is the only way. The Democrats will impeach over it and Federal Judges will surely try to get involved. But both are going to happen anyway, regardless.
The Democrats smell what they think is blood. There is NO WAY they aren’t going to allow the President appoint another SCOTUS justice, much less two. And neither party in DC wants a wall or immigration reform for that matter… and that is absolutely necessary. I don’t know how we ever get the laws changed in this environment, but at least a wall would be a great starting point.
Trump is widely portrayed as having suffered a devastating loss to Nancy Pelosi
People are too impatient. This hand isn’t over. Hell, so far only a few of the cards have been dealt.
I have dealt with them in the past, but do not have any current contacts. In any event, they will talk to you if you have information they need for an assignment or if you in congress or a staff member of someone in congress. Otherwise, probably not.
I agree with the Professor- immigration is existential and we are in a Flight 93 situation. Yielding on the shutdown demoralized me, but giving up on him is counterproductive – he’s the only one fighting on our side.
I am perplexed though, why everyone pooh poohs the constitutional provision stating the federal government shall protect the states against invasion. Why rely on just a statute when u have a totally on point constitutional provision?!
I hope he builds one of the prototypes. The steel bollard fences only stop the most pregnant and the least in shape, and are damn easy to cut with a torch. A wall with a second fence with roads would be good.
And soldiers, 400,000 American soldiers.
And mines, and advanced surveillance and anti personnel drone swarms. Machine vision automated gun turrets would also be a good idea. Drill wells all the way down to bedrock, equip them with charges and monitoring. Detonate the charges when underground activity is detected, then redrill and place new charges.
A wall with a DMZ and then a fence, with enough lethal countermeasures that no one survives crossing. Enhance as necessary.
I strongly suspect that illegals will only be deterred when they start dying in high numbers. 20-30 million is a large costly problem.
We also need to get to the bottom of who is financing this steady assault on our border. It seems likely that is Soros.
It should be illegal to organize groups to subvert our immigration laws. We need to be prosecuting and imprisoning those people.
J.D., it has recently been suggested on other pages that the cartels are giving money to the dems. That would explain some things….
I agree, also, start killing the invaders and it will deter some of them.
And let’s stop pretending that any judge can stop the POTUS from performing his most important constitutional duty of protecting our borders. Let’s hope our military is not so corrupted that it still understands what a lawful order is and willing to do its own constitutional duty. The only recourse to enemies within is civil war.
Unfortunately, it isn’t pretending that some judge will stop his emergency action. It is a fact! We all know it will be the first action taken by the left and it will be expedited to SCOTUS. Then there will be another court action against it. This is the left’s MO. Now with the House, they will do this on a personal level in Trump’s life with subpoenas and probes. This coupled with the msm action of NEVER allowing anything positive to appear in the news is all part of the plan to oust him in 2020. We have now reached a place in our history where a no-name federal judge can stop the POTUS from almost any action.
Public school reading skills? You are ignoring the very point I made. Geez. You NeverTrumpers are worse than the commies.
Unless you expect Trump to build the wall by himself, all the judge has to do is give the bureaucracy cover to refuse.
Are you willing to take on the role of enforcing the President’s decision? With force? Because that’s what will have to be done.
Uh..gee…I dunno. Like. Since when did the military become “the bureaucracy”? Trump, as I’ve pointed out a few times on this thread, is the CIC. Military? CIC? Connect the dots.
You sure post a lot of illogical comments.
“Walls don’t work” is the new “you can’t drill your way out of high fuel prices”. Both Democrat arguments are examples of why you always believe the opposite of what they say on any given policy.
You can either play checkers or chess in Washington. For decades, Washington politicians have been playing checkers and still they have to cheat to win. Trump is playing chess and is not able to cheat, for obvious reasons.
For the last 2 years, the Establishment politicians, led by the Democrats, have fought any immigration reform, including a wall/barrier. Trump has offered everything these people have asked for and still they will not give an inch on the topic. A few months ago, totally, discouraged as the Establishment political machine again refused to engage in any meaningful negotiation, threatened to use the emergency powers granted his office to build the wall without Congressional approval. There was extreme reaction from all sectors of the national leadership on that point. So, what to do. Shut down part of the government because the Congress refuses to fund any border wall construction. Now, if the Congress folds, Trump gets some barrier funding. If not, it sets the stage for Trump to use Emergency powers and to justify it on the grounds that he has no choice.
Let’s see how it plays out.
Also, visa overstayers are less of a problem, because at least they qualified for a visa in the first place; they’ve been through at least some minimal screening, and are not obviously people we shouldn’t want here. So if they do disappear into the population we have some level of security that they’re not likely to be terrorists or violent criminals. There are no guarantees, but it’s better than nothing. People who cross the border with no visa or screening of any kind are obviously much more of a danger, so stopping them is a good thing even if we do nothing about the visa overstayers.
Milhouse, I agree with you, in principle. But, over the course of a State Dept career wearing many hats, I have adjudicated over 50,000 non-immigrant visas (NIV), and the officers on those visa lines are given, at most, 2-3 minutes to make that decision, and that is after minimal, if they are lucky, pre-screening by an overworked fraud unit. They’re driven by metrics from Consular Affairs in DC to make snap judgements, because careers and advancement are, in part, tied to numbers. More then a few visa overstayers are criminals who beat the system. I have personally worked to return many individuals who were discovered after the fact to be wanted war criminals or “regular” criminals in their home countries. The vetting of visa applicants is a serious problem.
Recall, the “Underwear Bomber” was an ordinary NIV applicant. I’m not disagreeing with you about the gist of your post. You’re correct about illegal crossers being more of a threat, but many of the ones coming in with valid visas need much more stringent vetting. Still, it is better, much better, than it was prior to January 2017.
Dear Independent:
This is illuminating. Will you please expand on how things have improved since Trump was inaugurated? It would be greatly appreciated.
More friendly rules allowing the use of social media have helped, along with more latitude for an interviewing officer to refuse an applicant if it “just doesn’t smell right.” And since January 2017 if an interviewing officer has even a whiff of an applicant not having the FULL resources to cover all costs of travel, which goes to credibility, they can refuse under public charge issues. Fraud units are being beefed up.
And some of the change is more ephemeral. There’s just a feeling that “someone” in DC has your back. A DHS/CBP officer told me directly in early 2017 that for the 1st time in 8 years he and his fellow officers felt like they were allowed to uphold the law and do their jobs. And for what it’s worth, that officer had a Hispanic surname. Most people of all backgrounds who came to the US legally want illegal entry stopped. I believe there’s hope, and I want the president to persevere.
You may think I’m lying, but I have a Consular colleague who is a wild-eyed liberal who keeps a MAGA hat in his office drawer, and insists that he is going to wear it at work on the day chain migration and the Diversity Visa lottery are ended. And I believe him. Out here on the immigration front lines even liberals like him get mugged by reality every day.
I agree with your comment, but would point out that we have known efforts of Iran’s Hezbollah, ISIS and HAMAS to put terrorists into the cross border stream of Illegals crossing the Southern (primarily) border. I don’t know of any known terrorists managing to pass visa screening, or an organized effort to effectuate that.
No reason Hamas wouldn’t try that route. Hamas runs Palestine and it would be trivial for them to issue fake backgrounds and credentials get any number of terrorists into the US.
The Underwear Bomber passed visa screening, as did the shoe bomber. And there are others less well known to the general public, but this isn’t the right venue to talk about them. Remember that all of Europe and the UK are full of Muslim radicals who would love to chop off your head and mine (some have already threatened me by name). Unless they have somehow run afoul of the law and garnered a police record (and most work hard, helped by the enclaves in which they live, to keep a clean record), every single one of them with an EU or UK passport can travel freely to the US without needing a visa due to the Visa Waiver Program that the US and 28 other nations have agreed to. That has to be addressed, but you can bet that AOC and others of her ilk will fight that tooth and nail.
“Also, visa overstayers are less of a problem, because at least they qualified for a visa in the first place; they’ve been through at least some minimal screening, and are not obviously people we shouldn’t want here. So if they do disappear into the population we have some level of security that they’re not likely to be terrorists or violent criminals. There are no guarantees, but it’s better than nothing.”
Right, less of a problem until they are a problem. Weren’t all of the September 11 bombers visa overstays?
Declaring a national emergency is an escalation of the fight. It will get brutal after that.
About 9 seconds after Trump declares a national emergency, some circuit court somewhere will issue an injunction against. The administration will have to be ready to go to SCOTUS immediately.
Also, assume that declaring the emergency will be treated as grounds for impeachment and have a public relations strategy ready before even starting.
It would be a LAWFUL order! Ultimately, Trump has the constitutional authority to command the military to address existential threats from enemies within and abroad“.
This fear of judges when the rule of law has been corrupted is pathetic. Our judiciary has been captured by partisan politics and it is time for them to learn that they don’t command anything. They just issue paperwork. The POTUS is also CIC and would be acting against an enemy our founding fathers provided a constitutional defense against.
How pathetic would that be were we to lose our freedoms for fear of a ruling by an non-elected judge? Ignore them! What are they going to do about it? Impeach Trump? Let’s got there and see what happens! My hope is that the SCOTUS steps in and heads off these judges at the very start.
The judge would be acting “ultra vires”, beyond his power. Just flip him the jake.
Judges can’t even get the illegals to appear at their scheduled court dates. Yet they have the power to stop the POTUS from exercising his constitutional powers on national security during an invasion? Our national sovereignty is under attack! How important does the threat have to be for the POTUS to have a free hand to defend the country?
It really is up to the SCOTUS to bring discipline to the judiciary. Now would be a perfect time to start cleaning house. Re-establish the checks and balances.
How about a GPS/cellular tracking collar, with the ability to explode. Then they will faithfully appear.
All we need is the will to reign illegals in.
Another way to look at it is that the crisis on our borders is immediate while the court “solution” proceeds like a snail. We need a solution NOW. Trump can blow off the corrupt courts and order the military to start building the wall NOW.
Once the wall is built and working as advertised, the courts would still be debating… what? There was no need? Trump had no constitutional authority? And just try to impeach him against the teeth of the public acclamation and rejoicing. Just try.
Build the wall NOW!
Just remember, while we’re transfixed by this ongoing drama, Trump has continued to work by re-nominating the positions that were pending at the end of last senate term.
I have read that the administration is somewhat derelict (slow) in re-nominating Federal Judge positions where the nominee was stuck in limbo by the Democrat slow-down during the last Congress. Apparently they have concentrated on nominating administration positions rather than the longer and greater impact Judges. That’s just my take, that a Deputy Assistant Secretary for whatever, or a Regional Administrator for GSA Region VIII is somewhat less useful and important than a Circuit Court of Appeals, or District Judge, of which there are over 100 openings current and more soon to be.
I don’t know, Edward, if you were a Trump nominee, would you have any second thoughts after watching false accusations and arrests on invented charges? Not to mention Antifa mobs outside your house like they were Tucker Carlson’s? I notice the Democrat controlled DC police and prosecutors haven’t done anything about it….
Build it.
The commie screams are music.
Dear Nancy Pelosi (C, commie)
How much are the criminal drug cartels paying you for opposing the wall?
Signed,
President Trump
We may soon learn how true that is. Last week, the Deutsch Bank money-laundering investigation finally got to the US bank involvement part. As if DB could launder maybe trillions of US$ for clients without the involvement of the only large US$-based economy on earth.
For now, they are citing only Russian oligarchs etal as clients but how can it not be every global criminal enterprise operating on cash dollars? Like the biggest cartels in the world? The drug cartels? I have always maintained that getting a cut in the drug-laundering profits was the prime motivator for repealing the Glass-Steagall Act.
Maybe that is why Trump agreed to a 3-week delay? We may be about to learn that most of our politicians are on the drug cartel payroll? How can they not be without borders and with crooked banks?
Sorry, left out the links.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-19/danske-money-laundering-whistle-blower-points-finger-deutsche-bank
Bloomberg is already putting the pro-Dem spin on it.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-24/deutsche-bank-questioned-by-gop-lawmaker-about-money-laundering
Stay tuned. This is just the tip of the iceberg. And the corrupt, open-borders Maxine Waters chairs the House Financial Services committee. What can go wrong?
Of course they are concentrating on the oligarchs, it’s all part of the Russia, Russia, RUSSIA “investigation”.
People have to remember it is a marathon, not a sprint.
Declaring a national emergency is also only one step in getting closer to the wall to start with because the Dems will use an obscure Obama or Clinton appointed judge from up northern Minnesota to stop the building from beginning.
I’m surprised this article hasn’t spoken about the things Trump would also need to do to clear the judicial road for building to start because as we know, Democrat Judges have placed themselves as the sole arbiters of what gets done in America now.
I’m betting on a District Judge in Hawaii dead set against having a wall in Ouahu to keep Central Americans traveling through Mexico out of Hawaii.
Call me crazy, but I think this was his plan all along. Let the Democrats prove they are the obstructionists – they declined EVERY proposal he countered with, and did not even attempt to negotiate with him. They took (and are taking) petty shots at him – but he knew to declare an EO too soon would not get the wall built.
This way he has done all he can do as POTUS, worked and been available every day, and is putting Americans and LEGAL immigrants safety and national security first, which is Job #1 for the federal government (“provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity”).
Crazy like a fox. Strategy. He also knows the courts will stand against him – after all, they have in the past AND they are fellow travelers, indoctrinated with the same poison as all leftists.
But he has law and precedent on his side. A SCOTUS escalation should bear out that it is within the Executive’s power to do this, and injunctions that go against SCOTUS should be ignored (as Obama did during both terms).
We will see, but I think this is the long game he planned from the beginning.
Dear Marie:
I had more in mind, Constitution Article IV, Section 4:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them from invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.
As for congressional powers under Article I, Section 8, Clause 15, it is given the power to:
15. To provide for the calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions[.]
Did you see the video the other day of young skulls full of mush (AKA University students) being asked about those very things (what the President offered Socialist-Democrats in exchange for agreeing to a wall/fence/barricade? I’m sure the video was selected on those who didn’t know, but there were some, randomly stopped walking around, who didn’t know that the Socialist-Democrats turned down the offer for Dreamers to have three years of legal status (when it is probable a Texas US District Judge will soon declare the program unconstitutional). You would think everyone would know about the offer, but the MSM apparently didn’t think it was important enough to widely report it so university students would have heard of it.
(what the President offered Socialist-Democrats in exchange for agreeing to a wall/fence/barricade)? Obviously I failed to close the parenthetical, fixed it.
Build it. The Democrats are not interested legislation that would end the economic motivation to come here illegally. A wall is a distant second choice, but in view of the bad faith shown by the Democrats at the national level, it’s the only thing available.
IMO: He’s trying to appear reasonable before dropping the hammer. So once the Emergency is declared and Nancy’s governance has failed.. he can say he gave her AND THE REPUBLICANS the opportunity to govern and she failed.
This is a failure of governance over decades. A crucial step in solving it will be a wall
Granted it’s a given the media will not care if trump tried to bring parties together to make a deal. They will demonize and destroy
Trump is also building support in the Senate for the Emergency declaration since he could be stopped by a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate. Since it will become clear in the next 3 weeks that the Democrats won’t negotiate anything Cocaine Mitch will have all the support he needs to let the president build the wall.
Dave, you’re putting a rosy spin on this. GOP senators don’t want a wall, but they can be shamed into it. Anyone from the GOPe could have run on Trump’s platform, but they didn’t. There’s a reason.
Can’t he just go straight to declaring war on the Democrats, and skip all the preliminaries?
A friend of mine on another forum wrote:
We know the left is already preparing to go to a friendly court (9th Circus?) to request an injunction against executive action. It seems like this might be a good plan to preempt that. Thoughts?
The President shouldn’t have to ask any judge for permission to do his job.
Then why does he?
Then should a President ignore a judge who tells him, “You can’t do that”? That’s where we’re headed and that will give Pelosi some actual grounds for Impeachment.
SnoperCod:
The judicial branch isn’t SUPERIOR, it’s supposed to be the weakest branch, or at most an equal branch, deciding controversies between the parties before it, not setting policy.
Let Pelosi impeach; the senate will not convict.
It’s past time to start putting judges in their place. Why the hell they haven’t been impeached for bad behavior in usurping the executive’s prerogatives, is beyond me. Maybe the GOPe can explain that to us.
Probably true but, if impeached, Trump would be a lame duck for his remaining time in office. Pelosi has already said that there’s no way an impeached president should be “allowed” to nominate Supreme Ct. justices…not that she had anything to do with it.
When the clearly says he can, then yes, the judge should be ignored.
when the law…
Trump reminds me of the little boy getting punched in the nose by a bully and says after each blow,”Next time you do that you’re gonna be in big trouble!” If he were going to declare an emergency the time to do it was 35 days ago which leads me to believe he isn’t doing it.
Betcha they’re burning the midnight oil at the lawfareblog coming up with arguments to present against Trump’s National Emergency Declaration and lining up the judges they will appeal to, Obama appointees at the top of the list.
”….Pelosi is crowing about her victory. She’s also emboldened, accusing Trump of being subjected to blackmail by Putin. (Exact quote: “What does Putin have on @realDonaldTrump, politically, personally or financially?”)”
I would ask Pelosi: ”What do the Chinese have on Pelosi, politically, personally or financially?”
And the Pakistanis? Why was Awan doing computer work for the dems? Why did he have access to so many dem reps? Why didn’t they mind that he took laptops and of course took secrets with him?
And yet nothing of it….
The media is so sick, so unAmerican, so pathetic. If they didn’t have all the capital of brand names, equipment investments and local channel affiliates, they’d be easy to destroy.
It looks like Pelosi/Schumer might just use all the rope provided them.
Good.
Declare and build.
But, what happens in the next budget? Nancy will surely retaliate on the military side and then blame Trump for the military not having enough money.
First things first. Start building the wall and take on chain migration, DACA, etc via Executive Order, at least for now.
2020 is another fight.
I await the day that Trump manages to get 3-4 times what he was asking for the wall, and can stand before the cameras and state, “Well I hope that Nasty Nancy and Chuck-you Schumer (or whatever his derogatory descriptions are) HAVE LEARNED THEIR LESSONS!!!
That statement by Schumer REALLY pissed me off! Almost put my fist thru the TV.
A couple of important items to consider:
1. In the event, Trump declares an emergency and proceeds with the wall, his most fanatical opponents will certainly attempt a campaign of sabotage and intimidation–up to and including violence–against equipment, workers, contracted companies, and even DoD entities like the Army Corp of Engineers. Trump should therefore state in no uncertain terms that such miscreants will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and, even further, forces guarding wall construction will be authorized to use deadly force if or when necessary.
2. We can already assume Democrats Gavin “Nature Boy” Newsom, in California, and Michelle Grisham, in New Mexico, will refuse to allow wall construction along their state borders. If this is the case, Trump will very likely federalize their state National Guard units and, armed with a SCOTUS legal decision, could even invoke the Insurrection Act to crush their acts of rebellion.
Stay tuned. This is going to get very interesting.
Don’t see why the Dems would negotiate by 15 Feb if they know he’ll just go the national emergency route. They don’t have to agree to build the wall and save face to their voters.
Just a bit on perspective: Let’s look at the doughnut and not the wall. What has been accomplished since his inauguration? A Lot. A lot more than most Presidents in their full terms.
Were this January 2013 and no additional barriers had been built, that would make for a nervous situation. Team Trump has a win column in the double digits while the “failures” can be counted on four fingers.
Whereas the wall is a big issue, its peripheral issues need to be addressed. Once those are cleared up, the wall will practically build itself as far as policy goes.
Small correction, “2013” should be “2023.”
“Trump’s strategic error was making a government shutdown…”
Well, he didn’t “make” the shutdown, he merely did nothing to prevent it. As did every other party involved. Nancy Lugosi refused to even talk, she fled Washington to avoid even a chance encounter.
But whatever.
I think Trump did accomplish one thing: he made the Spectre of Shutdown a lot less scary and hence a lot less effective. And he established a precedent for building the Wall through the military.
I’m waiting on President Trump to start playing offense and predict it will happen. He must start the offensive and keep everyone off-balance, so they can’t find a way to attack him, making him ineffective.
Phase 1 – During the State of the Union Speech, he should announce the Reduction in Force. Time to Drain the Swamp, by getting rid of those who impede justice in the DOJ, CIA and FBI, as well as reforming the rules that allow former Representatives and Senators to become lobbyists and enrich themselves!
Phase 2 – At the same time, Declare an Emergency and appropriate the necessary funds to build the Border Security Device (Wall, Fence, whatever you choose to call it). It MUST include Rail yards and Truck Terminals in the “No Man’s Land within our border, but before the border fence” to allow trains coming from and going to Mexico inspect for contraband. These must be rebranded as Ports of Entry. Repurpose the TSA to inspect ALL Shipping Containers, Rail Cars and Trucks at ANY Port of Entry.
Let the Army Corps of Engineers, engineer and run the project and make it the greatest Public Works Project since the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Hoover and Grand Coolee Dams and the Tennessee Valley Authority projects.
Phase 3 – While Nancy and Chuck are busy trying to play “whack-the-Trump,” it’s time open investigations on Robert Mueller, John Brennan, Susan Rice, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Valerie Jarrett, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (cue Senator Lindsey Graham), as well as Al Sharpton (RICO Act for conspiring to provoke Race Riots), Nancy Pelosi for systematic abuse of using Military Aircraft to fly her back to her home district.
Phase 4 – Announce the replacement for the Notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as soon as she retires or dies.
Time will tell.