Flanked by border agents who are going without paychecks during a government shutdown, U. S. President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use emergency powers to bypass Congress to pay for a wall on the U. S.-Mexico border.
MCALLEN, Texas/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Flanked by border agents who are going without paychecks during a government shutdown, U. S. President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use emergency powers to bypass Congress to pay for a wall on the U. S.-Mexico border.
Trump flew to the Texas border with Mexico to try to bolster his case for the border wall as a partial U. S. government shutdown tied to the issue stretched into its 20th day with no sign of new talks to resolve the impasse.
“We can declare a national emergency. We shouldn’t have to,” Trump told reporters. “This is just common sense.”
Such a step would likely prompt an immediate legal challenge over constitutional powers from congressional Democrats – a challenge Trump said he would win.
The Republican president is adamant that a government funding bill to end the shutdown include $5.7 billion for a border barrier – his signature campaign promise. Congressional Democrats oppose that.
The standoff has left a quarter of the federal government closed down and hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay.
A day after he stormed out of a meeting with Democratic leaders, Trump attacked them for refusing his demand, calling them harder to deal with than China, a rival power.
“I find China, frankly, in many ways to be far more honorable than Crying Chuck and Nancy. I really do,” Trump said, referring to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
The House passed two bills to fund the departments of transportation, housing and agriculture – each drawing a few more Republican votes than a similar effort on Wednesday to reopen the Treasury Department and other agencies.
