Tag: Trump wall vanity project

Trump tried to make the GOP border emergency fight about him. He lost anyway.

President Trump tried to marshal his most potent weapon — himself — to stave off what eventually became an embarrassing rejection from his own party over his declared national emergency on the border.

In numerous calls with Republican senators in recent days, the president spoke of the battle almost exclusively in personal terms — telling them they would be voting against him while brushing aside constitutional concerns over his attempt to reroute billions of federal dollars for a border wall. He argued that a vote against the emergency would be seen by GOP supporters as being against border security and the wall and would hurt their own political fortunes, according to a person with direct knowledge of some of the calls.

The president, along with his aides, continued to hammer that message leading up to Thursday’s Senate vote on the issue. Trump tweeted the day before that Republican senators were “overthinking” it, stressing that it was only about supporting border security. And White House aides made it clear to undecided Republicans that Trump was noticing those who chose to oppose him — particularly if they were up for reelection in 2020.

View the complete March 14 article by Seung Min Kim and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Senate rejects border declaration in major rebuke of Trump

The Senate voted on Thursday to nix President Trump’s national emergency declaration to construct the U.S.-Mexico border wall, setting up the first veto battle with his White House.

Senators voted 59-41 to pass the resolution of disapproval blocking Trump’s declaration. Underscoring the broad base of concern over Trump’s actions within the Republican caucus, 12 GOP senators broke rank and voted with all the Democrats.

The measure passed the House last month, 245-182.

View the complete March 14 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Following national emergency announcement, Trump goes golfing

The president’s public schedule contradicts his rhetoric about a crisis at the southern border.

President Donald Trump will head to his Mar-a-Lago resort and golf club Friday afternoon, hours after declaring a national emergency in order to build a wall on the southern border, according to his public schedule.

The move is not entirely surprising, given Trump’s past behavior in regards to the manufactured crisis.

Last year, the president sent troops to the border, in response to what he said was a worsening humanitarian and national security situation, only to pull them back a short while later, and then, without reason, send troops back again earlier this month. In January, Trump also delivered a televised address to the nation, laying out the supposed “crisis,” but did not declare a state of emergency, instead allowing the partial government shutdown — which began after Trump rejected a bill to fund his border wall because it did not include enough money — to drag on for more than a month.