‘Almost definitely’: Trump to call border national emergency

Donald Trump says he will almost certainly declare a national emergency on border security as the shutdown enters it 21st day.

Donald Trump flanked by Texas senators John Cornyn, left, and Ted Cruz at the border at Rio Grande yesterday. Picture: AP

Donald Trump says he will almost certainly declare a national emergency on border security if Democrats do not reach a deal over funding for a border wall.

In his strongest comments yet, the US President made it clear that he was leaning toward the controversial solution after the collapse of negotiations this week to end the three-week US government shutdown.

“I have an absolute right to ­declare a national emergency,” Mr Trump said as he departed for Texas yesterday for a visit to the US-Mexico border.

“If this doesn’t work out, probably I’ll do it. I would almost say definitely.

“If we don’t make a deal I would say it would be very surprising to me that I would not declare a national emergency.”

By declaring a national emergency, the President could use Pentagon money to fund the $US5.7 billion ($7.9bn) he is ­demanding to build the first section of his promised border wall.

It would mean he would not have to seek Democrat approval for the money thereby breaking the funding impasse that has shutdown the government.

But Democrats say such a move would be an abuse of presidential executive powers because there is no emergency at the border, and they have vowed to ­oppose any such decision in the courts.

Mr Trump said White House lawyers had advised him that he did have the legal right to declare a national emergency.

But he said his favoured option was still to strike a funding deal with the Democrats that included funding for the wall. However, he was pessimistic about the chances of such a deal.

“It would be nice if we could make a deal. But dealing with these people is ridiculous. I don’t know if they know how to make a deal,” the President said.

Mr Trump was speaking a day after he walked out of a meeting with Democrat leaders Nancy ­Pelosi and Chuck Schumer after they refused to consider any bill to fund the government that included money for a border wall.

House of Representatives Speaker Ms Pelosi said yesterday she believes the President set up the meeting with the aim of walking out of it.

“It wasn’t even a high-stakes negotiation,” she said.

“It was a petulant President of the United States, a person who would say, ‘I’ll keep government shut down for weeks, months or years unless I get my way’. ”

Mr Trump described the meeting as “a total waste of time” and he claimed yesterday that the Democrats were under more pressure to come to a deal than congressional Republicans.

“I think there’s far more pressure on them, because the people of our country want security, we want to be a secure country,” the President said.

Although some senior Republicans have expressed concern about the shutdown, Mr Trump claimed the party was “extremely united” about demand that funding for the wall be approved.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen unity like this in the Republican Party,” he said.

The ongoing government shutdown, which today enters its 21st day, prompted Mr Trump yesterday to cancel his planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month.

The President visited Texas yesterday to further ramp up his argument that there is a humanitarian and national security crisis at the border.

“I will tell you this is a tremendous crisis at the border,” he said.

“You have human trafficking, you have drugs, you have criminals coming in, you have gangs, MS-13 .. they go in between checkpoints where you don’t have any barriers.”

He portrayed the wall — which the Department of Homeland ­Security estimates will cost $US21.6 billion to build — as a potential cost saving measure.

“If we have the wall, we could have far fewer people working in terms of border security, and doing and even better job,’ he said.

“So if we had the wall, we could have a tremendous saving. I really believe a steel barrier would pay for itself every three or four months.”