How to mess up a fake emergency in 10 easy steps

NONE other than Ann Coulter declared on Friday, “The only national emergency is that our president is an idiot”. She has a point. The US president’s declaration, in the words of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, amounts to “a power grab by a disappointed president, who has gone outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process”.

Even the best-executed power grab would have been difficult to defend in court. There is no emergency (border crossings are down), the illegal drug problem (despite Trump contradicting his own administration) isn’t primarily a border problem, and the humanitarian problem that does exist (families fleeing Central America to request asylum) won’t be solved by a wall.

Nevertheless, in 10 steps, Trump irretrievably ruined whatever legal case he would have had.

First, he did not address the issue when the Republican Party held majorities in both the House and Senate, when, for example, he had the ability to push through measures.

Second, he rejected a deal for $25bn (€22bn) in border security in exchange for legalisation of “dreamers”, which doesn’t sound like the sort of thing you’d do in a real emergency. Third, he signed a continuing resolution that kept the government running until December 8, 2018. Again, you wouldn’t agree to that in the face of a real emergency. Fourth, Congress passed another continuing resolution to keep the government open until December 21, 2018.

Fifth, the president provoked a 35-day shutdown that ended with a three-week continuing resolution. Again, this doesn’t give off an emergency “vibe”. Sixth, as appropriators negotiate, the president threatens to use emergency powers until Congress gives him what he wants. The critical precondition for an emergency declaration is lack of congressional compliance.

Seventh, appropriators reach agreement – and Trump signs it. Eighth, there is no report or analysis demonstrating why Congress’s response is inadequate. Instead, Trump declares an emergency on the same day as the signing, a transparent effort to eclipse his utter failure to deliver on a campaign promise.

Ninth, at a bizarre Rose Garden press conference, Trump said: “I didn’t need to do this. I just want to do it faster.” It is difficult to imagine a more damaging confession that the emergency is a figment of Trump’s frail ego and thirst to avoid disappointing his base. Tenth, Trump tells a set of ridiculous lies to justify his border wall. For example, he denies replete evidence from his own administration that the vast amount of illegal drugs come through ports of entry.

According to Trump, he’s received legal advice that his emergency power grab is likely to be enjoined. Well, even Trump’s lawyers figured that out. However, Trump’s irrational, desperate and incoherent approach has not merely damaged his chances of surviving a court challenge. He has made it infinitely harder for Republicans to defend him and vote against a resolution reversing the declaration. Trump told them there was no emergency.

Any honest lawmaker cognisant of both this fact pattern and his oath of office would be obliged to vote to end the fraudulent emergency. However, many Republicans will support this authoritarian president. (© Washington Post)