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Trump Announces Border Trip amid Talk of Using Authority to Build Wall

Trump Announces Border Trip amid Talk of Using Authority to Build Wall
folder_openUnited States access_time5 years ago
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Local Editor

US President Donald Trump said he will address the nation and later go to the border with Mexico – a day after hinting he could declare a national emergency as government shutdown over funding of his border wall enters week three.

Trump tweeted on Monday that he intends to address the nation on Tuesday evening about the “humanitarian and national security crisis” on the southern border.

Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the president will visit the border with Mexico on Thursday, to meet with “those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis.”

The “crisis” phrasing in both announcements has sparked speculation that the White House might be moving towards declaring a national emergency. This would allow Trump to bypass Congress and use Pentagon funds to build a barrier along the border with Mexico.

Trump has not yet made a decision on declaring a national emergency, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters, adding that the White House counsel’s office is looking at the legality of such a declaration and urging the Democrats to get back to the negotiating table.

A quarter of the US government has been shut down since December 22, affecting some 800,000 federal employees, because congressional Democrats have refused to approve any funding for the border wall. Trump has stood by his demand for $5.6 billion approved by the Republican-majority House before its term ran out on January 3. Democrat leaders have alternately called the wall too expensive, obsolete and “immoral.”

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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