With Democrats sharing the Republicans’ grip on the federal purse strings, Donald Trump is set to bypass Congress and use the nuclear option to build his long-promised wall at the United States-Mexico border. It’s a move that will trigger a tough, protracted legal fight—and one that could even cause a rift within the G.O.P., where leadership previously warned the president against an emergency declaration.
Democrats, naturally, labeled the move “crazy,” “ridiculous,” and something “all of us will come to regret.” But Thursday also saw renewed cries of alarm from Republicans. Senator Susan Collins, who has criticized Trump in the past, released a statement calling the administration’s plan B a “mistake.” “Such a declaration would undermine the role of Congress and the appropriations process,” Collins said, warning of the precedent it could set. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a proponent of limited government, told a reporter he was “not in favor” of the plan, saying that “revenue raising and spending power was given to Congress” and suggesting that going around lawmakers would be an abuse of executive power. And Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who’s stood up to the administration before, said she “[doesn’t] think this is a matter that should be declared a national emergency.”
“I wish he wouldn’t have done it,” Senator Chuck Grassley told Politico. “I imagine we’ll find out whether he’s got the authority to do it by the courts.”
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“I never thought that was a good idea,” Republican Senator Pat Toomey told a reporter. “I still don’t.”
Trump had long suggested he’d employ the nuclear option, having previously called the bipartisan talks that led to this week’s border-security agreement a “waste of time.” He’d even implied that he would declare a national emergency during his State of the Union address earlier this month, but ultimately decided against it amid bipartisan backlash—including from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Now, though, Trump is planning to sign the bipartisan deal and employ the nuclear option. That will likely please his base, including Sean Hannity, who signaled this week that the only way he’d give his blessing to the “garbage compromise” would be if the president accompanied his signature with a national emergency. It’ll also please some of his Capitol Hill allies, including Lindsey Graham, who said Thursday that “this is a political fight worth having.”
It remains to be seen whether pushback from lawmakers can overcome the kudos from Trump’s base. That, after all, is one of the defining problems of Republican criticisms of Trump: that his detractors, time and again, have proven far more pliable than his allies. McConnell, who had previously opposed the nuclear option, announced his support on the Senate floor Thursday. And even those who expressed concern with the maneuver seemingly left themselves wiggle room. Take Marco Rubio: the Florida Republican indicated he believes Trump may be violating the Constitution if he bypasses Congress to build the wall—but only went so far as to say he is “skeptical it will be something [he] can support.” “I will wait to see what statutory or constitutional power the President relies on to justify such a declaration before making any definitive statement,” he said.
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