ABE NOMINATED ME FOR NOBEL: TRUMP

JAPAN OFFICIALS REFUSE TO CONFIRM OR DENY CLAIM BY US PREZ

WASHINGTON: The first lawsuits were filed within hours of US President Donald Trump declaring a national emergency on Friday to fund a wall along the border with Mexico - and more are expected, raising questions over the constitutionality of the order.

The first suit, filed in a Washington court, sought for the emergency order to be declared “to be in excess of presidential authority under Article II of the Constitution, an infringement on legislative authority and invalid”.

It basically sought to prevent the use of the defence department’s funds for building the wall.

The case was filed by Public Citizen, a non-profit advocacy group, on behalf three landowners from south Texas whose land holdings have been identified by the authorities for acquisition for the wall, and a non-profit environment organisation that fears the natural habitat of the region could be damaged by the construction of the wall.

More legal challenges are expected. The state of California, for instance, announced its intention to sue the declaration and the American Civil Liberties Union announced its lawsuit calling the emergency order “blatantly illegal”.

Trump announced on Friday he was declaring a national emergency “because we have an invasion of drugs, invasion of gangs, invasion of people, and it’s unacceptable”.

The emergency declaration will enable the administration to garner money to build the wall, over and above $1.375 billion allocated in a compromise spending bill passed by Congress.

The plan now is to raise an additional $6.5 billion, moving money from the defence department’s budget for construction projects and counter-narcotics programme, and some money from asset forfeitures by the treasury.

NO RESPONSE FROM JAPAN ON NOBEL CLAIM

Trump claimed on Friday that he had been nominated for the Nobel Prize by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

But there has been no such announcement from Tokyo, and Japanese officials have refused to confirm or deny the American president’s claim.

Trump claimed that Abe gave him “the most beautiful copy of a letter that he sent to the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize. He said, ‘I have nominated you…’ or ‘Respectfully, on behalf of Japan, I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize’.”

Trump added, “I’ll probably never get it, but that’s okay.”