The White House is finalizing details of a potential national emergency declaration to secure President Donald Trump’s border wall, even as lawmakers are trying to broker an immigration deal that could avert another shutdown in just over two weeks.

Trump met with his budget chief, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Jared Kushner and other top officials, including White House lawyers, on Tuesday to walk through the logistics of such a move. And White House aides have been quietly meeting with outside conservative political groups to build support for the president to take such an action. Those talking points, which emphasize Trump’s legal authority, have begun to show up in such conservative media outlets as Breitbart News.

But there’s no guarantee that Republican lawmakers, or conservatives, would support such a move. Some conservatives fear declaring a national emergency in this instance would set a poor precedent for future leaders; Democrats, for example, could pull the same move to deal with climate change or to broaden Medicare. Other GOP lawmakers have warned Trump against diverting Army Corps of Engineer funds that are earmarked for disaster relief projects in their jurisdictions.

“We’re pretty uniformly opposed to an emergency declaration. That is taking that emergency act beyond where it’s ever been before. We don’t like it. We don’t want to set that precedent,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in an interview.


The idea of declaring a national emergency has been floating around the Trump orbit since his inauguration two years ago. Senior policy adviser Stephen Miller — cheered on by former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon — saw it as a way to expand Trump’s executive authority. Miller, in particular, has long viewed it as a good path to tackle illegal immigration, especially since the issue has so fractured Congress.

If Trump goes through with an emergency order, it could split the Republican Party, said one former senior administration official. It would divide conservatives, driving a wedge between those strongly believe in ending illegal immigration at all costs and those worried about the legal precedent it would set.

“It could be seen as subverting the Constitution for his own ego, and it will be the end of his presidency,” said one former senior administration official.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...ration-1138308