Rule of thumb: Never underestimate the stupidity of this President and his unique ability to do the worst thing.
Know what's a national emergency? Having a president so stupid he can be goaded into a series of constitutional crises by the voices he hears on his tv set.
— Hunter (@HunterDK) February 14, 2019
President Donald Trump will sign compromise spending legislation that would avert another government shutdown and declare a national emergency to get more money for a border wall from other parts of the federal budget.
“President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action – including a national emergency – to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
Statement on Government Funding Bill: pic.twitter.com/DrNv9D4rEi
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) February 14, 2019
I suspect that this is theatre.
Trump knows, because someone assuredly told him, that declaring a national emergency will not work. It will be tied up in courts and will be struck down.
But Trump doesn’t care about that. In fact, that might be a GOOD thing, as he sees it. It means he can show his base that he is doing everything in his power to get the wall up. And if it fails, which it is sure to, before the 2020 election, he can blame the courts.
Clearly, this is not an emergency, and Republicans must privately be pissed at the precedent that Trump is setting.
The President should not declare an emergency just because he did not get his way with Congress. This is a terrible precedent.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) February 14, 2019
"The precedent that the president is setting here is something that should be met with great unease and dismay by the Republicans,” Pelosi said, referencing gun violence in America and other key issues for which future Democratic presidents could also declare national emergencies pic.twitter.com/pIDg2ZhG1n
— POLITICO (@politico) February 14, 2019
.@SenSchumer: The fact is, this is not a national emergency… Now [Trump is] trying to run around Congress in a desperate attempt to put tax payers on the hook for his wall. #NationalEmergency #FakeEmergency pic.twitter.com/9zBpVBdnCv
— PFAW (@peoplefor) February 14, 2019
If Trump can really declare a national emergency and build a wall, a future president should declare a national emergency and end homelessness
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 14, 2019
"It would be a pretty dramatic expansion of how this was used in the past," says GOP senator Ron Johnson of Trump declaring a state of emergency.
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) February 14, 2019
Marco Rubio: "It's a bad idea."
Republicans seem very caught off guard by this.
Yeah, this is chaos.
An officer smashed right into NBC's Lee-Anne Caldwell who was walking with a senator. Another reporter, who is pregnant, says she was also shoved. Lots of yelling between reporters and cops here, who are clearly blocking reporters from getting near senators.
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) February 14, 2019
Other reactions:
Trump, November 2014: https://t.co/DYZPj7ZyK9
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) February 14, 2019
A tweet not aging well today. #NationalEmergency https://t.co/EwfV70l1v7
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) February 14, 2019
OK, I was naive. I thought Trump would cave on the wall but pretend that he won, believing that his base would take his word. Instead he's going to hold the US Constitution – you know, separation of powers and all that – hostage to the stupidest policy idea in our history.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) February 14, 2019
What Trump must be asked about the #NationalEmergency:
— Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd) February 14, 2019
1. What, exactly, is it?
2. When, exactly, did it begin?
3. Why must it be declared right now?
4. Was the situation urgent at any other point during your administration?
5. How will we know when it's over?
There’s some evidence that Trump might be trying to please the pundit class, so that the stupidity and lies will trickle down to the rank-and-file, because even Fox News viewers aren’t in favor of declaring a national emergency.
Latest Fox News poll (out yesterday) on POTUS declaring a “national emergency” over the border wall:
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 14, 2019
Support 38%
Oppose 56%