Democrats’ Compromise Strengthens Case for Trump’s Wall ‘Emergency’
The argument that the president is defying Congress is undermined by the bill it passed.
Outside, looking in.
Photographer: Alejandro Cegarra/BloombergIn retrospect, it seems obvious that President Donald Trump would want to have his cake and eat it, too. That’s essentially what he’s doing Friday by both signing a government funding bill that provides $1.375 billion for a barrier with Mexico and also declaring a national emergency to allocate other federal funds for the same purpose.
Presumably, congressional Democrats knew this could happen when they entered the compromise to keep the government open in exchange for barrier funding considerably less than Trump sought. Political calculation is their expertise. They must have realized that by handing Trump a “defeat” on wall funding, they were effectively forcing him to declare victory via an emergency declaration.