Within the course of 50 minutes in the Rose Garden, Donald Trump declared a national emergency Friday and then proceeded to make it both legally and politically indefensible in one fell swoop. #Winning
After his initial announcement, Trump ultimately said that he could have done the wall “over a longer period of time," but he was choosing not to. "I didn't need to do this," he admitted, without realizing he was admitting anything, "But I'd rather do it much faster.”
Rather. Welp, if there was any question about whether Trump would be a messaging trainwreck on this issue, there isn't now. In fact, GOP senators, who have already been registering their deep unease with such a move, are now on the hook for defending executive overreach that the chief executive actually admitted was overreach in his very own announcement. My god, how could Trump possibly be worse at this?
Most Republican senators who are not already willing to go on the record against Trump's declaration will now spend the day running from reporters on Capitol Hill. Except for Sen. Lindsey Graham—his 2020 bid is clearly urgent enough that he will defend anything Trump does.
But that's not all folks—legally, Trump just ensured this thing is dead in the water. Remember when a federal judge blocked the administration from taking away temporary protections from hundreds of thousands of settled immigrants? Yeah, that decision came on the heels of Trump's “shithole countries” slur. Or how about the three do-overs the White House underwent on Trump's Muslim ban? Trump's own words on the campaign trail were repeatedly used to demonstrate his animus toward Muslims.
Whatever the case, it is an absolute certainty that when the White House counsel’s office prepped him for this announcement, the attorneys didn't say, "and make sure to mention that you don't actually need to do this."
That was just Trump adding a rhetorical flare of doom. Nancy Pelosi is quietly expressing her personal gratitude.