Thanks to President Donald Trump, the government has been shut down for just over two weeks (16 days, to be precise). Thousands of federal employees have been furloughed, federal contractors have been sent home without pay, and many essential government employees are working without pay. The Smithsonians and public parks are either closed to the public or open to it, and those that remain open are quickly gathering said public’s trash. People have—literally—died.
And Trump’s latest comment? He’s willing to declare a national emergency in order to get the funding for his precious, hideously racist and anti-immigrant border wall. He apparently wants to do this within the “next few days.”
His idea is that he may be able to avoid the approval block he currently faces from Democrats and hopes to guzzle the money from elsewhere. (To complete the loop, his issue with Democrats over this funding is why the government is still in a partial shutdown).
"I may declare a national emergency dependent on what's going to happen over the next few days," Trump declared to reporters as he departed the White House to head to Camp David this morning.
“We have to build the wall or we have to build the barrier. The barrier or the wall can be of steel instead of concrete if that works better,” he continued, as though his suggestion was remotely reasonable.
This isn’t entirely a surprise, as just yesterday he suggested he was leaning towards doing such a thing. On Saturday, a White House official told CNN that Trump was thinking about using military funds (under the guise of a national emergency) to fund the wall. And on Friday, Trump casually noted that he “may” try to use emergency powers to create his wall.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, appeared on a round of Sunday afternoon talk shows, and backed up Trump’s claims. On Fox News, she told Chris Wallace that the president is “prepared to do what it takes to protect our borders.”
Clearly, building this sickening wall is just about the only thing on his mind. Not, for example, people terrified their public assistance will dry up while offices are closed, government employees wondering how they’ll pay their rent, or litter and waste already damaging national grounds. So, nothing surprising from our president.