Trump’s Phony Emergency Won’t Help Him Win Votes
The president’s unprecedented act is a sign of weakness. And it won’t do him any favors at the ballot box.
Not the crowd he needs.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty
President Donald Trump is planning — at least as I write this — to sign a funding bill that Congress passed on Thursday, and then declare a national emergency to pay for his border wall, using money that had been set aside for military construction, drug interdiction and other objectives.
To be clear: Trump won’t be suspending the Constitution or imposing any other horrors that the phrase “emergency powers” might imply. He’s acting under perfectly valid laws passed by Congress and signed by previous presidents, mostly during the 1970s. It also isn’t the first time that a president has declared a national emergency (although usually they’re reserved for foreign-policy matters).