Trump’s imaginary emergency
Congress must not allow the president’s latest abuse of authority to go unchallenged.
Pdecision to use emergency powers to defy the will of Congress and spend billions of dollars more on a border wall may be his most outrageous abuse of authority yet. Congress should make sure it’s also his most short-lived.
On Friday, Trump ended the monthslong drama over government shutdowns by agreeing to a $333-billion funding bill to keep federal agencies running. But even as he accepted the legislation, he declared an official state of emergency over a nonexistent “national security crisis” at the border, then invoked his emergency authority to shift billions of dollars from previously approved military construction projects to his wall.
The move contravenes weeks of negotiations by lawmakers and an explicit decision, backed by large majorities in both chambers, to reject Trump’s request for $5.7 billion in wall funding and instead provide less than $1.4 billion for steel fencing — the same amount as last year. Unwilling either to live with that amount or to veto the bill and shut down the government again, Trump decided instead to write himself a check.
The president claimed there was ample precedent for what he’s done, but that’s just not true. The closest examples are when Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush used emergency declarations to reroute military construction funds, but that was in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — not to a political defeat at the hands of congressional Democrats.
No question, there are urgent problems at the border caused by an accumulation of Central American migrants fleeing violence and poverty — a large-scale human tragedy that’s been exacerbated by this administration’s inability to handle the surge in asylum applications from families and unaccompanied minors and its zeal for incarceration. But Trump, playing to the fears and xenophobia of his base, portrays these desperate people as an invading horde, with his wall as a magic shield that will somehow protect America from drug smugglers, human traffickers and other criminal elements.
Trump’s imperious use of emergency powers will soon be challenged in the courts, and rightly so. But the first and most important check on Trump will come in Congress, which is expected to consider a resolution soon to terminate Trump’s declaration.
That resolution will pass and overcome a likely presidential veto if enough Republicans discover the necessary spine. In fact, half a dozen have already said they oppose an emergency declaration because of the horrible precedent it would set.
Trump cares little about the long-term implications of the steps he takes. It’s all about his need to win now, consequences be damned. But lawmakers cannot abide this abuse of executive power, or else they’ll be conceding their constitutional control of the federal purse to the president — and praying the courts hand it back.