It’s Trump’s version of the Nuclear Option in this situation – it sounds dramatic and impressive, which is why he keeps using it as a threat to get headlines – but it not only won’t work, but will leave him without anything exciting-sounding to propose if he actually tries it. If he does, it’ll just be a big drag and will hold everything up.
Speaking of all of that, is it just me, or has Trump and Co been weirdly quiet today?
Is he though?
To me, it looks like McConnell is completely backing Trump 100%.
McConnell has 2 choices for what he can do:
Put the bill to a vote. If it passes, send it on. Maybe Trump signs it, maybe it’s his first veto ever. Whatever, that’s clearly dropping it right in Trump’s lap to own.
Take Trump as his word that this will be his first veto ever and block any vote, thereby eliminating the need to actually veto it.
The first feels like leaving him hanging. The second, what he’s doing, feels like abdicating all control to Trump. Worse yet, it’s based on his word which isn’t even consistent from minute to minute. What’s McConnell going to do, wait for Pence to bring him a plan he “says” Trump will sign, only to have Trump contradict him 5 minutes later.
McConnell is doing his best to make the senate irrelevant instead of an equal power in government.
Since a big chunk of the proposed wall would fall under the 9th Circuit Court, it wouldn’t even need to go as far as the SCOTUS. The 9th has repeatedly blocked unconstitutional actions by Dolt 45, often using his own words against him. In this case, he’s shot himself in the foot, legally speaking, by repeatedly threatening to use emergency powers or the military to fund the wall if it wasn’t put in the budget.
Strategically, the quickest way out of the current shutdown impasse would be for 45 to declare the state of emergency, opening the way for the budget to pass without funding for the wall. Which would then be immediately challenged and blocked as an unconstitutional end-around of the legislative process.
I give it about a 40% chance that this is what Lindsey Graham is angling for. He’s a shitweasel, but he’s also too smart to think that an emergency to fund the wall would be anything but a judicial non-starter.
You know, if there really were some kind of national emergency, unrelated to immigration (ebola epidemic, massive drought, meteor strike or volcano eruption), Trump would have no idea how to respond.
He actually has been saying that it’s been built. Repeatedly. Often within a sentence of asking for money to build it. All that’s been done is fixing fencing, since that’s what needed to be done, but he’s gotta give the supporters something or they’ll drift. Look at the bunny!
In reality, there are cases in court today from when W tried to erect more fence. Even if he got a bajillion dollars, it’d never actually get built. He knows it, but he also knows his fans like a simple message, simple result. They can understand a wall. They’ve probably licked a few.
You mean, like how he handled our hurricane disasters by tossing paper towels like a sky hook?
There are STILL places in Puerto Rico without power.
I think this is the problem we’re running into. If Trump says, “It’s an emergency, build the wall” then what happens next?
Congress can intervene, but what if they do and the president doesn’t back down?
The courts can rule it’s not an emergency, but what if the president doesn’t back down?
Ultimately, it comes down to someone in the military saying, “I’m sorry, Mr. President, that order is not legal and we won’t follow it.” or to impeachment.
Congress will not impeach. I don’t think the military will revolt. I think he can build the wall if he likes. He just might have to rip the US apart to do it.
And he’s threatening to take away money that’s supposed to be earmarked for disaster relief to pay for his stupid fucking wall:
True. I mean, he’s already reduced unemployment just by his election, brought peace to (and denuclearized) the Korean peninsula, curbed China’s trade abuses, and defeated ISIS. This would be one more accomplishment for his list of stellar accomplishments.
To keep him pacified, I guess we next tell him that – all thanks to him – NASA has a thriving colony on Mars, the national debt has been erased, and the US is a white ethnostate.
At some level, McConnel is scared of the “monsters from the Id” that Trump has awakened. The fear is that Republicans that voted for a bill that voted for a bill that was later vetoed by El douche would end up being primaried by trumpier politicians. My impression is that many in the GOP would happily turn on Trump, but they have neither the interest or the bravery to become “moat fillers.”
I figure that no one in charge thinks it would work, it’s just a way for Trump to save face. “Hey, I tried!” (somewhat like @Auld_Lang_Syne suggests with the Emperor’s New Wall). But then no one in charge thought he’d be President so who knows…
A project like this isn’t something that can really be done by order-following uniformed soldiers. Anything fancier than T-wall and barbed wire* is going to be done by giving money to construction companies. It’s looking like even with a declaration of emergency, this would have to be done with funds already allocated within the military construction appropriation. Which means taken from things that the military actually WANTS and then re-allocated to something that they don’t want, won’t help them, and isn’t their responsibility. They won’t refuse, but they’ll try their best to slow walk this off a cliff like they did Trump’s parade
*Certainly from the prototypes this will be more complex and is supposed to be significantly more durable, and CHEAPER to construct and maintain than anything that uniformed soldiers would do.
I don’t think he would actually veto it.
I’m not sure he even knows how to veto something. More likely, he’ll just sign whatever is put in front of him, then tweet “that it was exactly what he wanted and he got everything, total win, best deal ever”. The contents of the bill and and the tweet do not have to have any relation to each other. He’ll just say it’s what he wants, repeat it enough times that no matter the fact checking some will believe it, starting with himself.
This entire “not bringing it to the floor” and the house’s last minute change to not match the negotiated senate bill are just stupid. It’s congress, or really first Paul Ryan and now Mitch McConnell saying that Congress doesn’t matter at all instead of being an equal branch of government. It’s no wonder Congress’s approval ratings are so low.
It reminds me a bit of the bills to repeal the ACA. Pass a few dozen of them when you know they’ll get vetoed. The moment they’ll actually pass… suddenly no one was eager to do so. It seems like they only vote on things they know won’t happen.*
* This is obviously not actually true.
What people don’t realize is we are current under THIRTY national emergency orders still in effect from previous presidents - even worse is they have to be renewed every year so congress is failing us in that regard as well. This is no way to run a democracy, no single person should have that much power.
All that the law says is that Hitler will be mentioned as long as the discussion continues long enough*. It says nothing about whether the reasons he comes up is valid. For example, Godwin’s Law applies to discussions about Mussolini’s regime, wherein a comparison between the leaders and the regimes is pretty much necessary.
* Specifically, “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1”
The trade sanctions and what-not on Cuba are tied to a 1963 national emergency, and so it has to be renewed or the sanctions go away. A lot of them are like that, and pretty specific. I don’t know if Trump would be able to easily re-purpose them. (Or he’d be doing it.)
I guess we finally know who Lindsey Graham’s favorite Star Wars character is.
ETA: I posted this and then almost immediately saw almost the exact same joke in this tweet when I went back to Twitter. I swear I didn’t steal it though. GMTA.
