Trump ready to veto to get wall
Aide: President to protect declaration
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump is prepared to issue the first veto of his term if Congress votes to disapprove his declaration of a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border, a top White House adviser said Sunday.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller told “Fox News Sunday” that “the president is going to protect his national emergency declaration.” Asked if that meant Mr. Trump was ready to veto a resolution of disapproval, Mr. Miller added, “He’s going to protect his national emergency declaration, guaranteed.”
The West Wing is digging in for fights on multiple fronts as the president’s effort to go around Congress to fund his long-promised border wall faces bipartisan criticism and multiple legal challenges.
After lawmakers in both parties blocked his requests for billions of dollars to fulfill his signature campaign pledge, Mr. Trump’s declared national emergency Friday shifts billions of federal dollars earmarked for military construction to the border.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told ABC’s
“This Week” that his state would sue “imminently” to block the order, after the American Civil Liberties Union and the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen announced Friday they were taking legal action.
Democrats are planning to introduce a resolution disapproving of the declaration once Congress returns to session and it is likely to pass both chambers.
Several Republican senators are already indicating they would vote against Mr. Trump — though there do not yet appear to be enough votes to override a veto by the president.
Mr. Miller insisted that Congress granted the president wide berth under the National Emergencies Act to take action.
But Mr. Trump’s declaration goes beyond previous emergencies in shifting money after Congress blocked his funding request for the wall, which will likely factor in legal challenges.
Mr. Miller also argued that “this would not be even an issue if the president was invoking that statute to support some foreign adventure overseas.”
When host Chris Wallace pressed him on Mr. Trump’s own words, Mr. Miller insisted that there was an emergency at the southern border, saying there was an “increasing number of people crossing” and “a huge increase in drug deaths” since George W. Bush was president.
When Mr. Wallace countered with government statistics that showed attempted border crossings were actually at the lowest levels they had been in nearly four decades and that the overwhelming majority of drugs were caught at ports of entry, Mr. Miller demurred.
“You don’t know what you don’t know, and you don’t catch what you don’t catch,” Mr. Miller said. “But as a matter of national security, you cannot have uncontrolled, unsecured areas of the border where people can pour in undetected.”
Trump aides acknowledge that Mr. Trump cannot meet his pledge to build the wall by the time voters decide whether to grant him another term next year, but they insist his base will remain by his side as long as he is not perceived to have given up the fight on the barrier.
Mr. Miller said Sunday that by September 2020, “hundreds of miles” of new barriers will have been built along the border.
“If the president can’t defend this country, then he cannot fulfill his constitutional oath of office,” the top adviser said.
The segment took a tense turn after Mr. Wallace pressed Mr. Miller, a selfproclaimed constitutional conservative, over measures designed to block the president from obtaining funds without Congress.
That wasn’t an issue, Mr. Miller said: “Congress in 1976 passed the National Emergency Act and gave the president the authority, as a result of that, to invoke a national emergency in many different circumstances, but among them the use of military construction funds.”
The military, conveniently, has already been deployed to the southern border, Mr. Miller noted, and a wall is needed to “secure those areas where they’re patrolling.”
Still, the move lacks precedent, Mr. Wallace said, in how Mr. Trump has sought to secure his funds.
Mr. Miller repeatedly refused to acknowledge that it has not happened before.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he believes Congress needs to act to “defend” its powers of the purse.
“I do think that we should not set the terrible precedent of letting a president declare a national emergency simply as a way of getting around the congressional appropriations process,” he said.
Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, a critic of Mr. Trump’s border policies, said he would support legislation to review Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration, saying, “It sets a dangerous precedent.”
“My concern is our government wasn’t designed to operate by national emergency,” he told CBS.
Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told ABC that he believes there are enough GOP votes to prevent the supermajorities required to override a veto.
“I think there are plenty of votes in the House to make sure that there’s no override of the president’s veto,” he said. “So it’s going to be settled in court, we’ll have to wait and see.”