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3 ways Trump's national emergency declaration could die

It's increasingly looking like a no-win situation for the president — except with his base.
3 ways Trump's national emergency declaration could die

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The House is gearing up for a vote Tuesday to block the national emergency declaration that President Trump is trying to use to secure funding for his border wall, a move that the Washington Post calls an “unprecedented effort.”

Trump’s national emergency declaration isn’t popular with the public or lawmakers, and Trump even undercut his own case by conceding when he announced it, “I didn’t need to do this.”

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Trump’s argument for a national emergency appears to be losing on three major fronts:

The politics are terrible

The law is likely not on Trump’s side

We have lived and worked through national emergencies, and we support the president’s power to mobilize the executive branch to respond quickly in genuine national emergencies. But under no plausible assessment of the evidence is there a genuine national emergency today that entitles the president to tap into funds appropriated for other purposes to build a wall at the southern border.

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Congress has been putting more checks on Trump

That’s happened particularly on foreign policy, where congressional Democrats and Republicans still manage to find some common ground.

The president has remained unpopular beyond his committed base. Republicans in Congress might be starting to notice and they could start breaking ranks on things, particularly policies that hurt them in their own districts.

Cover image: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a trade meeting with Liu He, China's vice premier and director of the central leading group of the Chinese Communist Party, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Feb. 22, 2019. (Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images