Updated
I believe Trump will not declare a national emergency tonight.
In fact i do not believe he will ever actually use a declaration of national emergency to build The Wall.
Here's why...
If he declares it now he will take all the pressure off Chuck and Nancy. Declaring it now would take the air out of the bag, remove all the leverage he has against the Democrats and place the entire burden of the shutdown on him.
The Fake News media are now wasting their time talking about how his potential use of a national emergency to get The Wall would be, get this, an impeachable abuse of power. Bloomberg said today just that. Trump had goaded them into this position because of his assertions and Q's claim that the Army Corp of Engineers can, in fact, build The Wall.
Why do that?
The mere threat of proclaiming a national emergency guarantees air time tonight on all the major networks. If he made such a newsworthy announcement and it wasn't covered because of Trump Derangement it would assist his claim of Fake News, and that the MSM is the Enemy of the People.
Notice the irony, Trump has already declared a very significant national emergency in Executive Order 13818, “Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption,” regarding the blocking/confiscation of funds of those, world-wide, involved in corruption and human trafficking.
Do you remember that prime time address? Exactly, it didn't happen and thus, the MSM almost totally ignored it and has entirely ignored its massive implications.
Did you know that? Declaring a national emergency is not difficult by design because the president needs to be able to respond swiftly to rapidly developing events that are not anticipated or accounted for by existing law. Congress would fiddle while Rome burns...
Next, does Trump actually have the authority in this instance to declare a national emergency and use funds, not explicitly appropriated by Congress under Article I Section 9 based on that declaration? Many politicians and commentators have said that his claim of a national emergency has to meet some legal threshold to be valid and two, that he cannot spend a dime that has not been explicitly appropriated for that purpose by Congress.
What precisely is a 'national emergency'? Well it turns out that legally, its definition is both intentionally broad and vague in order to provide the Executive with flexibility to meet any and all security needs and circumstances which may arise. A "national emergency is a national crisis or a situation where circumstances threaten the country and call for an immediate response."
Is that clear enough for you?
The threshold for a national emergency is rather low. Given the foremost object of the Executive Branch, the security of the American people, this decision and its criteria are largely if not entirely left to the discretion of the president. Technically the criteria and procedures for declaring a National Emergency are circumscribed by the National Emergencies Act of 1976. signed by President Ford, Sept. 14, 1976.
This statute says that a state of emergency must be made publicly not in secret, it must go into the federal registry, and it is supposed to be subject to congressional validation/re-authorization for it to remain in effect after a certain period of time as prescribed by this law.
This law was seemingly designed to wrest power from the executive. It gave Congress the power to reauthorize or terminate, by simple majority vote, the state of emergency.
*However, very rarely has congress actually weighed in on the extension or termination of a national emergency. Thus they have opted to cede power to the Executive Branch and its discretion. *
The most notable example of a congressional roll-over in matters of national emergency was the W. Bush declaration in the aftermath of 9/11. This state of emergency was renewed by Bush, and then President Obama 8 years after the event. NEVER did congress abide by the National Security Act's stipulation that they approve of or discontinue the said state of emergency.
This is evident in the statement made by Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. She says: "The president is given these emergency powers as a temporary measure until Congress has time to act. It stretches credulity to think Congress hasn’t had time to act since 9/11 happened," "We should not be treating 9/11 as an emergency in 2017."
In fact in September 2017, Trump became the third president to renew extraordinary post-9/11 emergency powers with Proclamation 7463.
Tell me when the national emergency for the "war on terror" begins and ends? When do we know the war begins and ends? The president will say so.
The pundits are scouring presidential actions to find a precedent which demonstrates why Trump can't build The Wall via national emergency. The problem it they are purposely choosing past examples that are not analogous to the present situation. For example they reference the Supreme Court ruling which asserts that Truman had no right to seize the steel mills in 1952 to break a strike during War time in which steel was a necessity.
This argument is a sophistry because Trump is not trying to seize and control private businesses. Instead he seeks to employ the military to built a wall. Nor is this a domestic use of the military, given it would be employed to thwart what is effectively a foreign invasion on the border.
Next, of course the president can use military funds to Build the Wall! Congress appropriates funds all the time whose precise use is not spelled out to the last degree in statues. The money has ALREADY been appropriated, and as Commander-in-Chief of the military Trump can spend it how he wants, relative to the needs and circumstances of the said emergency.
Q has told us in 2648, 2649, 2650, that the goal is not just to get The Wall, but to bludgeon the Democrats by exposing who they really are, the "ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (aka Open Borders, Anti-American, Globalists hypocrites). If The Wall will stop illegal immigration, drug, weapons and human trafficking(read child sex trafficking/slavery for elite pedos) then Trump will expose those who are against The Wall as those who must be FOR illegal immigration (Americans are Dreamers too), drug, weapons and human trafficking.
You expose them by sitting on the national emergency card that is in your back pocket and waiting for the Democrats to come to you to make a deal, the very deal that they do not want to make. Remember Trump has said the shutdown could last months (even years) and the MSM has actually reported it could actually last months. That must mean Trump is going to sit on his National Emergency Trump Card long enough to thoroughly expose the Democrats.
Tonight I think Trump will explain the necessity of The Wall and push the narrative that you must be for all the things a wall stops, if you don't want the wall.
I think he will just mention the national emergency option but NOT take it. Why would he now? It would take all the burden off the Democrats and put it on Trump. People will wonder why he shut the government down at all over a budget deal, if he could have done it by himself all along.
To win this Trump must drag this out and let the Dems flap in the wind for a while. He's long made the calculation the Shutdown hurts the Democrats more because we can all see how little negative effect there is from the shutdown itself, and that its is caused by the Democrats not wanting to give Trump a win (over an issue that most American's agree is the right thing for the country).
The Dems are screwed either way, as one Dem commentator recently said. Resist and they look Anti-American, give in and they give Trump a win on his signature "not-just-symbolic" policy position at the center of his campaign.
Promises made, promised kept! Not bad!
Also, it is clear to me that the shut down has another function connected to the tribunals at Gitmo and the likelihood that many Senate and House Dems are facing serious indictments. I see you Adam Schiff!(Great-grandson of Jacob, one of the Fathers of the Not-Federal Not-Reserve)
Trump will kept the national emergency option in his back pocket. It will be a threat, even though he says he doesn't make them. A threat is only a bluff if you don't follow through and Trump will if need be. As it sits in his back pocket we can all eat our Popcorn and watch the Democrats squirm and call him a racist, bigot and xenophobe, which started ON CUE the very day after Q mentioned the Dem shift in tactics in 2624.
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[–] KarlKastner ago
Excellent analysis!