Politics

President Trump to declare national emergency to secure border wall funding

President Donald Trump, pictured here in 2018, will declare a national emergency to fund his border wall. Source: Getty

US President Donald Trump has announced he will take the extraordinary step of declaring a national emergency to fund his controversial US-Mexico border wall.

The White House confirmed the move, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump plans to sign a bipartisan spending deal to avoid another government shutdown and then declare a national emergency to fund his border wall.

The declaration will prompt a major shift in the president’s powers, giving him the authority to use defence funds to pay for the wall without approval from Congress.

It comes after Congress voted in favour of an amended proposal on the border wall funding, with The Washington Post reporting senators approved $1.375 billion for 55 miles of new fences along the border in Texas, far short of the $5.7 billion Trump had sought for 234 miles of steel walls.

According to The Post the vote was rushed through Congress on Thursday (local time) to avoid another government shutdown following the record-breaking 35-day shutdown earlier this year that saw thousands of Americans go without pay.

The White House said on Thursday that the president was declaring a national emergency to deliver “on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country”, but analysts in Washington say the move has already worried some Republicans who fear it could set a precedent for a future Democratic president to use the same tactic against them.

However, while the rest of the country was busy debating the consequences of the shutdown, Trump was occupied with revelations the Department of Justice (DoJ) had held meetings to discuss removing him from office in the days after he fired former FBI director James Comey.

Andrew McCabe, who was fired as deputy FBI director last March, told US 60 Minutes that following Comey’s removal in May 2017, the DoJ met to discuss whether the vice president and Cabinet members could be gathered to remove Trump under the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment.

The 25th Amendment outlines how a sitting president can be removed.

In a preview clip aired on the news program’s website, McCabe said he was concerned about Trump’s ties with Russia and worked to build a case quickly while he was still at the FBI so that if he was fired, his investigation wouldn’t be swept under the rug.

McCabe also recalled a meeting he had with the president following his election to office, saying was “troubled” by the real estate mogul’s ascent to power.

“I was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and just won the election for the presidency. And who might have done so with the aid of the government of Russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage,” McCabe said. “And that was something that troubled me greatly.”

Trump immediately took to Twitter to rubbish the report, calling the former intelligence worker a “disgrace”.

What are your thoughts on all this? Is Trump right to use whatever power he can to fund the wall? Or does declaring a national emergency set a dangerous precedent?

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