Americans aren't buying Trump's fake emergency

Trump failed to convince Congress to pay for a wall along the southern border, so he made up a fake national emergency. But the reckless move backfired as Americans aren’t buying it.

In a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released over the weekend, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump declaring a national emergency to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The poll is the latest setback to Trump’s unhealthy obsession with a wall, and his determination to force American taxpayers to pay for it.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump pledged to force Mexico to pay for a wall along the border, using the topic to gin up racist anti-immigrant sentiment among his base of supporters. Two years into an unpopular presidency, Trump pulled a bait-and-switch. Instead of Mexico, Trump tried as hard as he could to force Congress to hand over $5.7 billion in taxpayers funds to build a border wall.

After the 2018 midterm election, where immigration was a major issue, Democrats refused to submit to Trump’s demands. In a churlish tantrum, Trump forced a 35-day partial government shutdown, holding the paychecks of 800,000 federal workers hostage unless Democrats gave him what he wanted.

In the end, a defeated Trump caved to Democratic demands, reopening the government with no funding for a wall. But in the process, Trump made up a fake national emergency at the southern border, and is trying to use that declaration to steal money from other federal projects to funnel toward building a wall.

Dozens of former officials have made public statements saying Trump is flat-out wrong. There’s no emergency at the southern border. Almost two dozen former Republican members of Congress even said the whole national emergency declaration is nothing more than a ploy to circumvent the Constitution, which allows Congress to determine funding priorities.

Trump tried to convince Congress that he needed funds to build a wall, but he failed. When he tried to make his case to the American people, he failed again.

But since Trump is willing to ignore the Constitution, it is no surprise he will ignore the voices of the majority of the American people, too. After all, Trump only cares about one opinion: his own.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.