Donald Trump threatens to declare national emergency to get fund for border wall

Trump said he has the option of building the border wall with his constitutional provisions under national emergency. “We could call a national emergency because of the security of our country. Absolutely. No, we could do it. I haven't done it. I may do it. I may do it."

Shutdown spares federal park rangers at site in Trump hotel — “I may do it. We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly. That’s another way of doing it,” he said. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump warned on Friday that he could keep the US government partly closed for “months or even years” and declare a national emergency if the Congress refused to provide USD 5.6 billion funding for a wall along the Mexico border.

After his meeting with top Democrats failed to end the two-week impasse, Trump said that he may call a national emergency to build the wall without congressional approval.

“I did say that. Absolutely, I said that,” Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden of the White House after Democratic leaders told media about the president’s “threat”, during their meeting with him, to continue with the partial government shutdown for years.

The Republican president initially gave a positive account of the 90-minute meeting with Democrats at the White House, describing it as “very productive”. But when asked whether he had considered using emergency presidential powers to bypass congressional approval of funding, Trump said he had.