How President Trump came to declare a national emergency to fund his border wall
President Trump knew that lawmakers were unlikely to ever give him the billions of dollars he wanted to build a wall on the southern border, so in early 2018, he gave aides a directive: Find a way to do it without Congress.
It was hardly an easy assignment. The White House had some flexibility to spend money the way it wanted, but could not move the necessary billions at will. Trump could declare a national emergency, but White House attorneys repeatedly warned him the risk of failure in court was high.
On Friday, Trump did it anyway. Stepping to a microphone in the Rose Garden, the president told reporters he was invoking his powers to declare a national emergency, then acknowledged what his lawyers had been warning him: He will get sued and, at least initially, will probably lose.
The remarkable moment, people familiar with the matter say, marked the culmination of months of heated internal deliberations between the White House Counsels Office, the Justice Department, the Office of Management and Budget, lawmakers and the president over how to fund the wall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-president-trump-came-to-declare-a-national-emergency-to-fund-his-border-wall/2019/02/15/3e9f4348-3152-11e9-8ad3-9a5b113ecd3c_story.html
I like this excerpt from the article:
An ACLU lawyer responded on Twitter: keep talking mr president.
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)I knew Trump was going to do it. The bottom line is, for all his projected strength, he's a cowardly, petty, little man who can't stand to lose. And I knew that he would rather burn the whole country down than be perceived as having lost.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)blame it all on Ryan and Pelosi.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Something else to slap his name on.
He is so desperate to create a legacy for himself.
To leave something behind that will make it impossible for people to forget his name.
Like TRUMP Tower, or TRUMP Plaza. I pray the nation prohibits ANY attempt by his knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, sister-screwing, low IQ, christianistas to name something after him. I NEVER want to see a Trump International Airport or a Trump Memorial ______.