President Trump today backed off the dramatic step of declaring a national emergency to secure border wall money, indicating he wants Congress to continue negotiating to end the 21-day partial government shutdown.
Trump said he would refrain from taking unilateral action on border security — just one day after he said he would “probably” do so within days — amid mounting pushback from his own GOP allies on Capitol Hill.
“We want Congress to do its job,” Trump told reporters this afternoon. “What we’re not looking to do right now is national emergency.”
The White House is rethinking its strategy just one day before the federal government will enter its longest-ever stretch without funding.
The sense of urgency for a deal is mounting, as 800,000 federal workers missed their first paycheck today, including critical air traffic controllers.
Pressure was also coming from congressional Republicans, who are increasingly skeptical of Trump’s plans for an executive order.
Many have balked at the strategy as potential overreach — not unlike the GOP’s rhetoric against former President Obama’s unilateral immigration moves.
They have also objected to the funding strategy Trump would use to pay for the wall after declaring an emergency.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said today that he would oppose reusing disaster funds for the wall, referencing the Trump administration’s possible plan to use disaster relief money.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally, also raised concerns about using such money.
By Friday afternoon, Trump said that he is “not going to do it so fast.”
The White House’s pivot away from an emergency order muddies the path forward for reopening the government, with both Democrats and Trump unbending in their stance on the border wall.
Heading into the fourth weekend of a funding impasse, no bipartisan talks are scheduled, and Trump appears to have pulled himself out of negotiations that are poised to go nowhere without his direct participation.
“When the president acts, we will respond to whatever he does,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in response to Trump’s comments this afternoon. “A new idea might be for Republicans to stand up to the president and say it’s wrong to shut down government,” she added later when asked by a reporter if Democrats had any new ideas to end the weekslong stalemate.
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have held a series of increasingly unproductive meetings with Trump so far this year, and no one else is talking to each other.
The Senate and House won’t return until Monday, essentially guaranteeing the shutdown will eclipse the previous longest funding lapse of 21 days.
Monday will be the 24th day of a partial shutdown.
Though both Trump and congressional Democrats seem comfortable with their political position as the shutdown lingers, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Friday that “nobody is winning.”
“I’ve got a lot of people that are saying, Lisa, you got to stand with the president, you got to be strong on this,” she said. “Then I have an equal number that are saying, please, please, do something to help reopen this government.”
But that’s proved impossible.
The usual players in bipartisan talks, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are sidelined.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is deferring to Schumer.
There’s no bipartisan gang coming to save the shuttered federal departments.
“What good is it if the president isn’t on board? And we’ve learned in the past that’s an iffy proposition,” said Sen. Angus King (I-ME), whose own immigration compromise was killed by Trump last year. “If it persists, I think they’re going to have to consider a veto override more and more. It’s ridiculous.”