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Robert Costa
National political reporter covering the White House, Congress and Campaigns
Felicia Sonmez
National Journalist of the Washington Post Political Press Team
January 27 at 8:20 pm
President Trump is again considering invoking emergency powers to build his wall project on the US-Mexico border without congressional approval, starting the latest bipartite immigration talks. with the renewed threat of unilateral executive action and further dividing the Republicans already shaken by the fallout from the closure. .
"The president's commitment is to defend the nation, and he will do it with or without the Congress," said Mick Mulvaney, Acting White House chief of staff, in "Fox News Sunday."
The partial shutdown, the longest in US history, ended on Friday with Trump's decision to temporarily reopen the government without any money for a wall.
Over the weekend, Trump said inside the West Wing that declaring a national emergency was perhaps his best option, as he struggled to badert himself within a divided government and secure funding, according to four people involved in the discussions who were not allowed to speak. publicly.
A White House official described Trump's decision to reopen the government as "a compensation process" for an executive action rather than a retreat. And a long-time confidant said Trump was increasingly frustrated by the media coverage of his concession to the Democrats and had been encouraged by conservative allies to step up the fight.
A bipartisan and bicameral Congress committee was tasked with negotiating a border security agreement as part of an agreement to keep the government open after February 15. An impbade could lead to a new closure.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Trump said the committee's chances of success were "less than 50-50", although there are "a lot of very good people."
He also said that another closure was "definitely an option" and expressed his doubts about the fact that he would support any deal with less than $ 5.7 billion in funding from the anti-border wall.
This review comes as conservative commentators criticized Trump and claimed that he was yielding to leading Democrats on Friday, and that the investigation of Special Adviser Robert S. Mueller III on Russia's interference in the The election of 2016 had moved deeper into Trump's inner circle, asking questions about the future of his presidency.
Some Republicans told Trump Sunday to sign a statement after 35 days of harsh criticism. Polls show that the public blames Trump and Republicans more than Democrats.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) Called the prospect of a national emergency declaration a "terrible idea", reflecting the Conservatives' widespread unease with the use of executive powers by general means to achieve political goals, a tactic that they have long blamed for employing Democrat presidents.
"It's just not a good precedent to create in terms of action. That does not mean I do not want border security. I do. I just think that's not the way to do it, "Rubio told NBC's" Meet the Press ".
Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) Accepted. "I agree with the president about border gates and border security as an important first step, but there could be a future president with whom I disagree and who thinks there is another something that is an emergency, "Blunt told Fox News Sunday, he added, adding that he hoped" the president would not have to go. "
Nevertheless, other Republicans have stated that the GOP's appetite for the use of emergency powers was stronger than legislators had suggested on television, as they hoped the party's base would applaud Trump for his daring .
"He will definitely have a Democratic opposition for partisan reasons and Republicans will oppose on the basis of the precedent he creates," said former White House legislative director Marc Short, during an interview. "But there's one thing that some Republicans are saying to the media, and then there's what they calmly say to themselves when the camera is not on:" I really wish it would do it. . "
Several White House officials said privately on Sunday that Trump had argued that a national emergency declaration in the coming weeks could put pressure on Congress to include the funding of the wall as part of a "clean bill of rights". a wider legislative package next month and tell the main GOP voters that the president is going away. to the extreme to get funding for the most important commitment of his campaign.
Mulvaney said that if the legislation sent by Congress to the president's office was not satisfactory, Trump could veto it.
"Yeah, I think he's really doing it," Mulvaney told CBS Channel's "Face the Nation," as to whether Trump was ready to shut down his business next month.
After Trump had agreed to reopen the government, a committee was charged with negotiating a border security agreement as part of a new spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
The Republican Senate leaders appointed to the committee Senator Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), Chairman of the Senate Approval Committee, as well as Governor GOP Sense. Blunt, Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) and John Hoeven (N.D.). Democratic leaders have called on Senators Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) And Jon Tester (Mt.).
Ten members of the House have also been appointed to sit on the group.
The White House Council Office, led by Pat Cipollone, has prepared draft statements. Trump spent much of Thursday night examining them at the White House residence, watching the television coverage of the shutdown, according to two White House officials familiar with the talks. who were not allowed to speak in public.
Angry at the Democrats' refusal to comply with his demands, particularly with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Trump lobbied Cipollone for advice on potential legal repercussions and called for friends, such as that the Fox Business animator, Lou Dobbs, views on the negotiations, the two officials said.
In the end, Trump receded Friday after being informed by badistants of the growing concern of Republican lawmakers about the closure and delays of federal flights. Trump was wary of the prospect of a confrontation with the closure and the judicial challenge of emergency powers at the same time, the officials added.
"In the end, he will be judged on what happens at the end of the process, and not on what happened this week," Mulvaney told Fox.
The White House refused to comment on the internal deliberations or the president's appeals.
There is tension in the White House on the political cost of using emergency powers. The senior advisor, Jared Kushner, has reservations and hopes the Democrats will eventually agree to work with the administration on a bipartisan immigration agreement, while others, including the House commercial adviser Blanche, Peter Navarro, spoke of a national emergency as a way to count the issue, according to the four people familiar with the discussions.
Some Trump allies urged the president to act, fueling his own instincts of using emergency powers, White House officials said.
"On February 15, if Democrats still say," Go to hell, you get a dollar, that's all, "they say to Trump," I'm not going to do with you what I've done with Bush. Obama, "then I hope he will take the road of urgency," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (RS.C.) at Fox News on Friday.
The Trump administration has spent weeks presenting the situation at the US-Mexico border as a security and humanitarian crisis that may require the declaration of a national emergency, paving the way for congressional briefings, press and Trump's speech to the country this month.
Trump said Sunday that illegal immigration cost the country tens of billions of dollars a month, although the data on which it based its estimate was unclear.
"We are not even in February and the cost of illegal immigration has reached $ 18,959,495,168 this year," he said. tweeted. "The cost Friday was $ 603,331,392."
Trump has previously baderted that the cost of illegal immigration has risen to more than $ 200 billion a year without providing any evidence.
About 11 million people would live in the United States without papers. But on Sunday, Trump disputed this figure, tweeting that "there are at least 25,772,322 illegal aliens, not the 11 million that have been reported in our country for years." "So ridiculous!"
Asked about "Face the Nation" about this issue, Mulvaney replied that he did not know where Trump got his information. But he argued that the figure "must exceed 11 million" because of the number of migrants who continue to visit the United States each month.
"I think that figure was accurate a few years ago. We know it's going up, "Mulvaney said.
As negotiations resumed, lawmakers on both sides remained true to their positions on Sunday. Some Republicans warned, however, that the government is closing the government again.
Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in "Face the Nation" that "absolutely nothing" was accomplished by partially closing the government.
"Closures are never a good policy, never," she said. "They should never be used as a means to a goal, no matter how important that goal is."
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