‘I Didn’t Need to Do This’ Sums Up the Entire Trump Presidency
Trump’s national emergency declaration to build a southern border wall will be met with fierce Democratic opposition, both legally and in Congress
By Ryan Bort
President Trump on Friday morning signed a national emergency declaration in order to build a wall along America’s southern border. He announced the news during a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House. “I’m going to be signing a national emergency and it’s been signed many times before,” he said. “It’s rarely been a problem. They sign it. Nobody cares.”
Though Trump claimed indifference to previous national emergency declarations due to the fact that they “weren’t very exciting,” it’s likely because, as Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale pointed out on Twitter, previous declarations didn’t involve the “seizure of money for a controversial initiative Congress refused to fund.” The president went on to cycle through his usual talking points regarding border security, citing false statistics, co-opting the stories of families of people killed by immigrants and describing human trafficking scenarios that have no basis in fact. “We’re talking about an invasion of our country,” Trump said.
