Trump threatens to use emergency power to build wall, end shutdown

MCALLEN, Texas/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Flanked by border agents who are going without paychecks during a government shutdown, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use emergency powers to bypass Congress to pay for a wall on the U.S.Mexico border.

Trump flew to the Texas border with Mexico to try to bolster his case for the border wall as a partial U.S. government shutdown tied to the issue stretched into its 20th day with no sign of new talks to resolve the impasse.

“We can declare a national emergency. We shouldn’t have to,” Trump told reporters. “This is just common sense.”

Such a step would likely prompt an immediate legal challenge over constitutional powers from congressional Democrats - a challenge Trump said he would win.

The Republican president is adamant that a government funding bill to end the shutdown include $5.7 billion for a border barrier - his signature campaign promise. Congressional Democrats oppose that.

The standoff has left a quarter of the federal government closed down and hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay.

A day after he stormed out of a meeting with Democratic leaders, Trump attacked them for refusing his demand, calling them harder to deal with than China, a rival power.