President Trump’s White House aides are scrambling to cobble together a televised press event for the boss as early as tomorrow, according to CNN’s Jim Acosta. Trump has demanded that he be allowed to sign the veto of today’s Congressional action that would block his national emergency declaration in front of cameras, rather than in a private signing, as all other presidents have when the time came to veto a bill or piece of legislation.
Aides are hashing out plans for Trump to veto the resolution blocking his national emergency declaration in front of the cameras as soon as tomorrow, I’m told. Official said it would be unusual for Trump not to do so.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 14, 2019
No doubt Trump will also take the opportunity to revisit some of his greatest hits as he puts on a show for the world: Women bound and gagged in trucks, untold tons of illicit drugs pouring across the border, Mexican criminals looking for any opportunity to murder Americans in cold blood. His script reads like an international thriller, and although all of the material is ridiculously untrue, he goes back to it again and again in an effort to convince the nation that his border wall is necessary, despite the massive opposition to building it.
Opposition to Trump’s emergency declaration from Democrats, of course, stems from the fact that he intends to rob money from congressionally-approved projects and use it to fund his folly. But Republicans, who voted overwhelmingly in the House against the declaration and in the Senate saw 12 GOP members cross the aisle and vote with the left, oppose Trump because of what such a declaration might mean for the future of the executive branch.
If Trump succeeds in using the national emergency declaration to fund a political project that hasn’t been approved by Congress, Democrats could do the same if and when they regain control of the White House — perhaps taking money from, say, outdated warplanes or massive tax incentives for corporations in order to fund something from their own agenda, like student loan forgiveness or an expansion of Medicare access to the rest of the nation.
And while all of that political calculus happens behind the scenes, it’s clear what Trump wants out of it: More attention.
Featured image via screen capture
