‘SIGN’ OF SURRENDER
Prez to ink plan that has no wall cash — then play bizarre ‘emergency’ card
President Trump announced Thursday he will sign a sweeping government spending package to avoid another shutdown and simultaneously declare national emergency to get his long-promised border wall built — a legally dubious maneuver that prompted bipartisan rebuke and threats of court challenges.
Both the Senate and the House overwhelmingly approved the budget deal, and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump will approve the measure, even though it doesn’t include any taxpayer cash for the construction of a conventional wall with Mexico.
However, as soon as he has signed the bill, Trump will declare an emergency on the southern border, according to Sanders — a move that would in theory allow him to allocate money from the Pentagon budget and use it toward building a wall.
“The President is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country,” Sanders said, disregarding that the promise Trump actually made repeatedly during the 2016 campaign was that Mexico — not American taxpayers — would pay for the wall.
Trump is expected to make the declaration and sign the spending legislation at some point Friday ahead of the midnight shutdown deadline.
Democrats balked at the announcement, accused Trump of manufacturing a nonexistent crisis and asserted his declaration would be instantly challenged, both in the courts and in Congress.
“This is a gross abuse of power that cannot be tolerated,” said House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (DManhattan and Brooklyn), who has the power to take up articles of impeachment, adding he will “fully support” a joint congressional resolution to terminate Trump’s order once it’s made.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, said Democrats are “reviewing” their legal options and will respond “appropriately,” calling the imminent declaration a “desperate” and “lawless” act.
Several government watchdog groups, including Washington, D.C.,-based Protect
Democracy, separately threatened to file lawsuits in federal courts if Trump declares emergency.
Legal experts argue the declaration would invariably be struck down in court, as the President has undermined his own sense of emergency by teasing the announcement for weeks.
The funding bill Trump is set to sign bankrolls the whole government through Sept. 20 and puts up $1.375 billion for the construction of 55 miles of barriers on the Mexican border — far less than the $5.7 billion the President wants. Moreover, the barriers have to be modeled after already approved designs, preventing the construction of the concrete wall Trump promised.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he backs Trump’s doubleedged plan, which will spare hundreds of thousands of federal workers the financial hardship of another shutdown but set up a contentious legal battle over the emergency declaration.
At least one of the court challenges that ends up being filed against Trump’s order will likely end up in the Supreme Court, as both sides are expected to appeal any unfavorable decision.
Several rank-and-file Republicans broke with McConnell and urged the President to reconsider his planned declaration.
“We have a crisis at our southern border, but no crisis justifies violating the Constitution,” Sen. Marco Rubio (RFla.) said.
The last shutdown — which was caused by Trump’s refusal to sign any legislation that didn’t earmark at least $5.7 billion for the wall — left 800,000 government employees without paychecks for 35 days and hampered everything from FBI investigations to airport security and national park services.
That shutdown was the longest one in American history.
Trump’s emergency declaration would open up a number of funding options, including the possibility of taking taxpayer cash earmarked for disaster relief efforts.
People familiar with the matter say Trump is seriously considering stripping money allocated for post-hurricane recovery programs in Puerto Rico and use it to build his wall.
The consideration has drawn intense ire from Democrats.
“That is so outrageous and so mean-spirited,” Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx) told the Daily News on Thursday afternoon.
Serrano, who’s the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, said lawmakers “won’t just sit on their hands” if Trump tries to take away money from Puerto Rico and speculated even some Republicans will take issue with it.
“There are people who will worry that this could set a trend where the President could take money for whatever he wants from wherever he wants,” Serrano said. “He might run into more trouble than he thinks."