Democrats and many Republicans will explode if Trump bypasses Congress with emergency order

Chad Pergram

The good news is that the sides were at least talking when it came to the government shutdown over the weekend.
The dialogue abruptly fell silent Wednesday.
"It's cold out here and the temperature wasn't much warmer in the Situation Room," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Our meeting did not last long."
The mercury plunged in Washington as Pelosi emerged from a conclave at the White House. A cold front pushed through the region, spinning up snow squalls. A gale roared down Pennsylvania Avenue.
There were no real talks over the holidays on the government shutdown. It took two weeks to even have much of a conversation. President Trump huddled with top Congressional leaders a week ago. And then they empaneled a "working group" to continue to the discourse last weekend.
But it was not a "finishing group."
Everyone in Washington knew the conclave of bicameral, bipartisan leadership aides huddling with Vice President Pence wouldn't get far in their efforts to end the government shutdown.
The universe of people involved was too big. Moreover, such discussions require the principals at the table. These aides weren't deputized by their bosses to cut a deal. They would have to kick this to the next level if they were to forge an accord.
President Trump and Pence lunched at the Capitol with Senate Republicans Wednesday before hoofing it back to the White House to meet with the "Big 8," the top leaders of both parties from both the House and Senate. But that meeting was over before it started. When Pelosi returned to the Capitol, she punctured the typical politesse of such high-level meetings, characterizing Trump as "a petulant President of the United States."
For the record, the president has yet to bestow the speaker with a nickname. But the government shutdown is only in Day 21…..
Trump maintains the option to declare a "national emergency" on the border and go around Congress. Meantime, Congressional Republicans want a wall. But lawmakers of both parties guard their Constitutional prerogatives closely. Under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, Trump could conceivably bypass Congress by trumpeting a need at the border. The law allows the president to spend "unobligated" funds in what's called the Military Construction Appropriations Bill. Military Construction, or "MilCon," in Washington-ese, is one of the five spending measures Congress and the president agreed to in the fall. Thus, Trump would have to declare a "national emergency" to redistribute money in the MilCon bill for purposes besides those Congress deemed necessary.
The administration fishing around various federal accounts is beginning to tick off lawmakers.
"I am opposed to using national defense funds for anything else," said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. Fox confirmed that the administration has inquired about pilfering supplemental spending funds Congress approved in February 2018 to mitigate wildfires in California and a spate of hurricanes which ravaged Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The non-voting, Republican "Resident Commissioner" to Congress from Puerto Rico, Rep. Jenniffer Gonzalez Colon, R-PR, said Puerto Rico is being "treated with total inequality." Gonzalez Colon said raiding the relief ledger is "unacceptable and I will not support the reallocation of funds." She added that Puerto Rico has "not received the disbursement of funds after more than a year" following Hurricane Maria.
Congressional Democrats and many Republicans will explode if the president declares a national emergency and bypasses Congress. Republicans heaped criticism repeatedly on President Obama for what they viewed as his abuse of executive authority. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., implored Congressional Republicans to "reclaim" their Article I powers under the Constitution. It’s worth watching to see if some Congressional Republicans give Trump a pass.
That said, all administrations test the limits of executive power. President Harry Truman tried to federalize the steel industry during the Korean War. Truman's attempted use of federal, emergency powers prompted one of the five most consequential rulings in the history of the Supreme Court: Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, colloquially known as the “Youngstown Steel Case.” The High Court delivered what was described as a "stinging rebuff" to Truman over overstepping his Constitutional grounds.
Obama pushed the envelope with recess appointments. The Constitution requires the House and Senate to meet at three-day intervals. The Senate often just gavels in and gavels out after a few seconds when it’s trying to do the bare minimum to meet Constitutional standards.
Obama grew frustrated with the Senate not confirming some of his nominees. So the president short-circuited the Senate’s confirmation process, making appointments to the National Labor Relations Board during one of those short Senate windows. The Supreme Court rejected Obama’s interpretation of a recess. The High Court ruled that the executive can't meddle with the privileges of the legislative branch. In other words, if the Senate says it’s in recess, then it’s in recess.
Congressional Republicans have generally shown deference to Trump over many of his decisions. But GOPers flexed their muscles more lately when they think the president made a bad decision or pushed his case too far. Examine the outcry among some Congressional Republicans over how Trump handled Saudi Arabia following the death of Jamal Khashoggi. Trump also fielded GOP criticism after he announced the U.S. was withdrawing from Syria.
Members of Congress guard their Constitutional prerogatives closely. Many won’t be happy about a national emergency to declare a wall.
Moreover, Trump could draw the ire of House and Senate appropriators. It is said there are three types of Members of Congress: Democrats, Republicans and appropriators. Those who control the purse strings could balk if the president leaves tire tracks on their lawn.
There’s also a problem in the House when it comes to re-opening the government. Never before has a government shutdown gravitated from one Congress to another. There are more than 90 new House members. Pelosi is deft when it comes to taking the temperature of her caucus. She knows House Democrats don’t want a wall. But what would they support? The freshmen are so new, it’s not even clear they know what sort of compromise legislation would work. In the past, Pelosi could quickly determine what’s tolerable to her caucus. This could hinder efforts to re-open the government quickly.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., freelanced behind the scenes in recent days to engineer a border agreement alongside an immigration/DACA pact.
"Pelosi has dealt herself out. She is a non-player," proclaimed Graham.
By nightfall Thursday, Graham's aces crumbled. Trump himself personally dealt Graham out, killing the senator’s proposed efforts.
"I've never been more depressed about moving forward than I have right now," said Graham, noting he now supported President Trump going around Congress to build the wall.
House Democrats forged ahead Thursday, passing three individual spending bills to re-open various sections of the federal government. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., predicted the bills would marshal "double digits" of Republican defectors.
One bill garnered eight Republicans. Another one ten. A third secured 12 GOP yeas. So far, a Republican insurrection against Trump wasn’t materializing.
“The problem here in the Senate is that (Minority Leader Chuck) Schumer (D-NY) and Pelosi think they’re winning and the President thinks he’s winning,” observed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
So much winning.
And this likely doesn’t get solved until someone feels they’re losing.

Trump calls media 'bonkers' as he pushes his own shutdown narrative

There was a telling moment yesterday when President Trump was pushing back against still more media accounts he views as unfair.
Trump had walked out of a Capitol Hill meeting with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, having become convinced that they wouldn't budge on the government shutdown that is now headed toward its fourth week. The Senate minority leader said Trump had slammed the table, and House speaker had publicly called him "a petulant president of the United States." So this wasn't some media concoction, it was on-the-record reporting.
"I didn't pound the table, I didn't raise my voice. That was a lie," Trump told reporters.
He added: "I don't have temper tantrums, I really don't. But it plays to a narrative, but it's a lie."
In saying the story plays to a narrative, the president was acknowledging that his public image is very different than the way he views himself — and, not shockingly, blaming the press. It's usually journalists who talk about narratives, but Trump, of course, is the media critic-in-chief.
In the long run, whether he pounded the table or not is irrelevant. Trump clearly made a hasty exit from the meeting, since by his own account he said "bye-bye" and walked out after Pelosi told him the Democrats wouldn't fund his border wall even if he reopened the government.
Every White House tries to sell a narrative to the public, and that often clashes with the media portrait. But not since the Nixon days has there been such a virulent and relentless battle over which picture is closer to the truth.
In that media availability, Trump said "the news incorrectly reported" the incident. He said he asked Pelosi if they spoke in 30 days, after a government reopening, "are you going to give us great border security, which includes a wall or a steel barrier," and she said no.
"What you should do is give them Pinocchios" — handed out by the Washington Post fact-checker — because Mike Pence and Kevin McCarthy back his account of the meeting, Trump said. But he said the press would stick with "what you guys reported anyway because you're fake news."
The president was on shakier ground when he scolded the press for reporting on something he's said dozens and dozens of times.
"I know the fake news likes to say it," Trump said, that "during the campaign I would say Mexico is going to pay for it. Obviously I never said this and I never meant they're going to write out a check. I said they're going to pay for it."
He flatly made that promise, leaving the impression that the Mexican government would somehow pick up the tab for the border wall. I always thought he would have some kind of accounting explanation if the wall got built. And Trump said the Mexicans are paying for the wall through the "incredible deal we made" on trade, which replaced NAFTA. Of course, the government remains in partial shutdown because of a fight over 5.7 billion American dollars.
The president also tweeted about the leak to The New York Times, which I reported on yesterday, that he'd said he didn't want to give the Oval Office speech but was talked into it by his communications team.
"Gave an OFF THE RECORD luncheon, somewhat of a White House tradition or custom, to network anchors yesterday - and they quickly leaked the contents of the meeting. Who would believe how bad it has gotten with the mainstream media, which has gone totally bonkers!"
Bonkers may be one of the few insults he hasn’t hurled at the media.
But someone in that room did betray him by violating the off-the-record ground rules.
And there was this:
"The Mainstream Media has NEVER been more dishonest than it is now. NBC and MSNBC are going Crazy. They report stories, purposely, the exact opposite of the facts. They are truly the Opposition Party working with the Dems. May even be worse than Fake News CNN, if that is possible!"
The president, as is his wont, conflates many things with his attacks and counterattacks on the press.
He fights back when he has a different version of a closed-door meeting, or when an off-the-record agreement is broken: fair enough. But he also accuses the media of dishonesty for reminding everyone of his campaign vow that "Mexico will pay for it." And he throws in insults — bonkers, crazy, opposition party — that aren't always tied to a specific complaint.
The president and the press remain wedded to their narratives, which all too often are diametrically opposed.

Trump says he has 'absolute right to declare a national emergency' in Fox News interview

President Donald Trump told Fox News on Thursday that he has "the absolute right to declare a national emergency" if he can't reach an agreement with congressional Democrats to provide funding for his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"The law is very clear. I mean, we have the absolute right to declare a national emergency," Trump told Sean Hannity in an exclusive interview. "This is a national emergency, if you look what's happening."
LINDSEY GRAHAM: IT'S TIME FOR TRUMP 'TO USE EMERGENCY POWERS TO FUND' BORDER WALL
Trump did not lay out a specific timetable for when he might take such a step, saying: "I think we're going to see what happens over the next few days." However, he appeared to hold out hope for making a deal to secure wall funding and fully reopen the government.
"We should be able to make a deal with Congress," the president said. "If you look, Democrats, in Congress, especially the new ones coming in, are starting to say, ‘Wait a minute, we can’t win this battle with Trump, because of the fact that it’s just common sense. How can we say that a wall doesn’t work?’"

The president spoke to Fox News on the banks of the Rio Grande, where he traveled to argue his claim that a barrier would deter drug and human trafficking into the United States.
"Death is pouring through," Trump said. "We have crime and death and it's not just at the border. They get through the border and they go and filter into the country and you have MS-13 gangs in places like Los Angeles and you have gangs all over Long Island, which we're knocking the hell out of. There should be no reason for us to have to do this. They shouldn't be allowed in and if we had the barrier, they wouldn't be allowed in."
The president said a wall would be "virtually a hundred percent effective and [House Speaker] Nancy [Pelosi] and [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck [Schumer] know that, but it's politics. It's about the 2020 campaign, it's about running for president. That's what they're doing. They're already doing it. It's a shame. They've got to put the country first."
Democrats repeatedly have refused to approve any legislation to fund the wall. The standoff led to the partial government shutdown, which is set to his the three-week mark Friday.
"Everyone wants us to win this battle," Trump said. "It's common sense ... Look, we’re not going anywhere. We’re not changing our mind because there’s nothing to change your mind about. The wall works [and] if we don't have a steel or concrete barrier, we're all wasting a lot of time."

Texas Border Cartoons

Nielsen: Dems' attitude on border wall 'offensive,' 'disrespectful'

On the eve of her trip to the southern border in Texas with President Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told Fox News' "Hannity" that it was "offensive" and "disrespectful" for top Democrats to accuse Republicans of exploiting illegal immigration for political gain.
Speaking earlier Wednesday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez echoed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s language, telling Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom" that "this whole border security crisis … it really, I believe, is a manufactured crisis."
Nielsen, who met with congressional leaders Wednesday in the Situation Room with President Trump and has played a central role during talks to end a partial federal government shutdown, called that rhetoric disgraceful.
TRUMP WALKS OUT OF EXPLOSIVE WHITE HOUSE MEETING AFTER PELOSI REFUSES TO CONSIDER WALL
The DHS head alluded to the several Americans killed by suspected illegal immigrants that Trump referenced in his Tuesday night prime-time address from the Oval Office, including a California police officer whose death came the day after Christmas.
"It's offensive; it's disrespectful," Nielsen said. "I can't imagine being one of these victims' families and listening to an elected member of Congress claim that their pain and their suffering is manufactured. it's offensive, is what it is. But it's also unprofessional."
Nielsen reiterated the president's messaging that the surging numbers of illegal immigrant families attempting to cross the border represents a humanitarian problem.
"It's not just a security crisis -- it's a humanitarian crisis," Nielsen told host Sean Hannity. "We have Doctors Without Borders saying  one in three women on this journey are raped. seven out of 10 of these migrants are victims of violence."
A survey from 2015 to 2016 conducted by Doctors Without Borders that interviewed 467 "randomly sampled migrants and refugees in facilities the organization supports in Mexico" found that "nearly one-third of the women surveyed had been sexually abused during their journey." Among the reported perpetrators were gangs and members of the Mexican security forces.

"Walls work. We can't say it enough."
— Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen

"The facts are incontroverible," Nielsen added. "Anywhere we have built a wall, illegal migration has dropped 90-95 percent. ... Walls work. We can't say it enough."
In a joint, nationally televised rebuttal to Trump's speech Tuesday night, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned Trump's rhetoric and what they called his "obsession" with building a border wall.
"They have no alternative," Nielsen told Hannity, referring to congressional Democrats. "They refuse to engage, and it's very, very  disappointing.
"I don't know what the Democrats are doing," Nielsen concluded. "The president has made offers. ... They have come up with no solutions on their own."

Florida election official Brenda Snipes' constitutional rights violated when she was suspended, judge rules

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said newly inaugurated Gov. Ron DeSantis must grant former Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes a “meaningful opportunity to be heard” regarding her suspension by March 31. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Former Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes may be getting redeemed, as a Florida federal judge ruled Wednesday that former Gov. and current Sen. Rick Scott violated her constitutional rights when he suspended and “vilified” her without first allowing her to make her own case.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said newly inaugurated Gov. Ron DeSantis must grant Snipes a “meaningful opportunity to be heard” regarding her suspension by March 31.
Snipes came under fire during the contentious recount that followed the 2018 elections and a legally required recount in close races for governor and U.S. Senate.
In the aftermath of the November election, Snipes said she would resign on Jan. 4, but Scott immediately suspended her. Snipes then tried to rescind her resignation and challenged the governor’s suspension as “malicious” and politically motivated.
Walker ruled that Scott’s decision was an “effective termination” and violated Snipes’ due-process rights. The judge also said Scott’s order suspending Snipes contained “falsehoods.”
Still, Walker said he did not have the authority to reinstate Snipes, writing that the court was “not determining what the ultimate outcome will or should be.”
Snipes sued both Scott and the GOP-controlled Florida Senate. The lawsuit named the Senate because that chamber’s Republican leader said there wasn't time to investigate the allegations against Snipes before her resignation took effect. Florida law requires the Senate to either remove or reinstate county officials suspended by the governor.
Snipes had been the top elections official in Broward County since 2003, when then-Gov. Jeb Bush appointed her. She had been elected three times and her current term was not scheduled to end until 2020.
Attorneys for Scott had argued the governor had the authority to remove her from office. Neither Scott nor DeSantis immediately responded to requests for comment on the decision.
Scott suspended Snipes for misfeasance, incompetence and neglect of duty, and appointed his former general counsel to take her place. In his executive order, Scott cited problems during the recount, including reports of more than 2,000 ballots being misplaced.
Snipes' attorney, Burnadette Norris-Weeks, contended that some of the problems cited by Scott were not caused by her client.
Daniel Nordby, who has been Scott’s general counsel, said the governor took action when he did because he “determined the people of Broward County deserved a supervisor of elections” who could prepare for upcoming spring municipal elections in a “competent manner.”

Second death, more accusations sharpen focus on Ed Buck, California Democratic megadonor

Democratic Party megadonor Ed Buck faces new questions this week after Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives opened an investigation into the second death of a man -- who authorities have reportedly identified as 55-year-old Timothy Dean -- at Buck's home in less than two years, and a third man came forward with an account of what he described as his drug-fueled interactions with the well-connected Californian.
Deputies in West Hollywood responded early Monday morning to a report of a person not breathing at Buck's home, and county firefighters pronounced the man dead. The cause of the death will be determined by the coroner, according to Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department, and investigators have not released the man's identity.
But, critics are questioning whether Buck's race — both men found dead were black — or if his wealth or political ties to the Democratic Party influenced an initial investigation of the 64-year-old who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to a slew of liberal causes and candidates over the years, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and a who's who of top California politicians.
“He definitely has not been cooperative, as his attorney says. He refused to answer any questions when I tried speaking with him,” Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Investigator Quilmes Rodriguez told Fox News via email Wednesday night.
Officials said the investigation of the second death will include a review of the first man's death, in 2017. In that case, Gemmel Moore, a young black man, was found dead in Buck's apartment. After a slow-moving investigation that went on for months, Buck was not charged.
DEMOCRATIC MEGADONOR TOM STEYER BACKS AWAY FROM PRESIDENTIAL RUN
“On July 27, 2017 there was a death investigation of a male adult, Gemmel Moore, who was determined to have overdosed at the same location. Mr. Edward Buck was present during both incidents,” the most recent statement said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, The Daily Mail published an account by Jermaine Gagnon, 28, who claimed he narrowly escaped death in Buck’s apartment. Gagnon, who said he met Buck online in April 2018, claimed the Democratic megadonor flew him from Minnesota to Los Angeles.
“He was quite open about being very generous to the black community,” Gagnon said about Buck. “I’m his type, and pretty much half of the black community is his type — vulnerable, depressed. If you’re in a depressive state, that’s the energy that feeds him.”
Gagnon charged that Buck injected him with crystal methamphetamine at his sex toy-filled apartment. Gagnon told The Mail: “He took my phone. I was so scared. I felt death walked into my soul. I called my mother. I said, ‘I feel like he’s going to kill me, I think I’m going to die.’”
Attorney Seymour Amster, Buck's attorney, said after Monday’s death that Buck was not arrested, and was cooperating with investigators.
“From what I know, it was an old friend who died of an accidental overdose, and unfortunately, we believe that the substance was ingested at some place other than the apartment,” Amster said. “The person came over intoxicated.”
Amster did not return Fox News' emails and phone calls about the Gagnon report.
A massive protest erupted outside Buck’s apartment Monday night. The Daily Mail reported more than 100 people gathered to demand answers and accountability.
“Arrest Ed Buck, prosecute Ed Buck, and then a jury needs to convict Ed Buck,” activist Jasmyne Cannick said to the crowd. “This man has had two dead bodies in his house, and he is still in his house.”
Said another demonstrator: “This man is a danger to our community.”
Buck’s support of political causes began in 1987 in Arizona. That year, The New York Times described Buck, then a registered Republican, as a “33-year-old millionaire entrepreneur who retired from the insurance service business a year ago” to become politically active.
He took the reins of a recall drive that year against then-Gov. Evan Mecham, a Republican who'd drawn widespread publicity for canceling a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday for state workers.
During the campaign, it was disclosed that Buck had been arrested twice. He was accused of public indecency in an adult bookstore in 1983, and in 1987 faced a charge of obtaining a drug without a proper prescription. The public indecency charge was reduced to disturbing the peace, and Buck paid a $26 fine. Prosecution in the drug case was suspended after he agreed to counseling.
The Times reported Tuesday that Buck has given more than $116,000 to Democratic politicians and groups, including about $1,500 to support Obama and $2,950 to Clinton, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks campaign fundraising.
CNN reported that Buck, in 2017, gave $10,400 to the Getting Stuff Done PAC affiliated with Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, $2,700 to Rep. Ted Lieu of California, and $1,000 each to Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California, Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, and former Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Lieu said he was “deeply disturbed” by the disclosure of a second death at Buck's home and was donating contributions he received from Buck to charity.
After Fox News reported on the initial investigation of Buck last year, at least six Democrats in California and Arizona confirmed they had returned or redirected donations from him.
Buck is a past candidate for the West Hollywood City Council and is well known in LGBTQ political circles. In response to the latest death, the Los Angeles LGBT Center called for a full investigation. “While much is still to be learned, it appears this tragedy is linked to substance use. LGBT people and other marginalized groups are at elevated risk for impacts that result from the current epidemic uses of opioids, methamphetamine, and other dangerous drugs,” the center said.
“It says a lot about the dark underbelly of gay culture and West Hollywood,” Steve Martin, a former West Hollywood city councilman who is gay, told The Los Angeles Times. “We always are slapping ourselves on the back about how open-minded and diverse we are, and frankly the residents know that’s not always the case. When an incident like this comes up, it makes us confront a lot of issues that are really uncomfortable.”
The Times reported that 46 percent of West Hollywood residents identify as LGBTQ, according to community surveys; the city is 80 percent white.

Gemmel Moore, 26, was found dead at Ed Buck’s West Hollywood apartment on July 27, 2017. (Facebook)

Buck lived in a rent-controlled apartment block for the last 22 years.
The Daily Beast reported that Buck’s neighbors were suspicious he lived a “double life.”
Beatriz Albuquerque, 29, who lives in the apartment next door to Buck, told The Daily Beast he had men over almost every day: “Usually it’s like one a day, but almost every day he has somebody come over. Every time he has people over, they’re usually quiet. It’s not like he has crazy parties.”
Albuquerque and her husband, Josh Tedla, 31, told The Daily Beast Buck’s guests seemed “normal but sometimes a little weird,” and the young men often would hang around the building after stopping over or sitting on the doorstep waiting for Buck to let them back in.
As for Buck's relationship with Moore, Amster has previously described them as friends, and said his client had nothing to do with that death.
A charge evaluation worksheet obtained by The Los Angeles Times said the “admissible evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that suspect Buck furnished drugs to Gemmel Moore or that suspect Buck possessed drugs.”
An autopsy report said Moore died of a methamphetamine overdose. He was found naked on a mattress in the living room with drug paraphernalia littered about.

Trump set to visit southern border in Texas, as ongoing federal shutdown continues

Just one day after he walked out of a contentious White House meeting with Congressional leaders, President Trump is preparing personally to visit the southern border as he continues to contemplate whether to declare a national emergency to fund a wall there.
Trump is scheduled to visit near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, a city of 143,000 on the river, on Thursday, which would be the 20th day of the ongoing partial federal government shutdown affecting nearly 800,000 federal workers. Trump is expected to be joined by his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
While details on Trump's travel schedule are scant, a local paper reported that advance teams from the Secret Service have locked down the Anzalduas Park in Mission, Texas that "sits along the Rio Grande in the shadow of the Anzalduas International Bridge and is frequently patrolled by Border Patrol agents attempting to intercept those crossing into the country illegally."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders first announced the border trip on Monday, saying the president would "meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis." (The president previously viewed wall prototypes near the border in San Diego, Calif. in March 2018.)
Responding to a report in The New York Times suggesting Trump did not really want to go on the Thursday trip and saw the visit as a necessary publicity stunt organized by his communications team, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday told reporters Trump was "enthusiastic" and "does want to meet with men and women" protecting the border "to hear what it is they see, what they need."

FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, file photo, floodlights from the U.S, illuminate multiple border walls, seen from Tijuana, Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

It increasingly appeared possible that Trump, who repeatedly has threatened to declare a state of emergency, may use the visit to determine whether to take that extraordinary step.
The National Emergencies Act grants the president broad authority to declare emergencies, and several federal laws then could clear a path for the White House to move ahead with building a wall.
One statute, 33 U.S. Code § 2293 - "Reprogramming during national emergencies," permits the president to "apply the resources of the Department of the Army’s civil works program, including funds, personnel, and equipment, to construct or assist in the construction, operation, maintenance, and repair of authorized civil works, military construction, and civil defense projects that are essential to the national defense."
TRUMP HANDS OUT CANDY, WALKS OUT OF EXPLOSIVE WHITE HOUSE MEETING WITH TOP DEMS
Another law, 10 U.S. Code § 2808 - "Construction authority in the event of a declaration of war or national emergency," permits the secretary of defense, in a presidentially declared emergency, to use "funds that have been appropriated for military construction" for the purpose of undertaking "military construction projects."
More than 35 million people watched Trump's first-ever prime-time address Tuesday night from the Oval Office on the importance of border security, which was followed by a rebuttal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Trump did not declare a state of emergency during that address, instead calling for compromise -- although he did not budge on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall.
Nevertheless, on Wednesday, both sides seemed further than ever from the compromise that Trump demanded in his address. The Democratic-led House approved a bill to fund the Treasury Department, the IRS and other agencies for the next year as part of a strategy to reopen the government on a piecemeal basis, but Senate Republicans dismissed the attempt as a nonstarter without any wall funding. Eight Republicans supported the measure.
The acting director of the White House budget office, Russell Vought, promised this week that tax refunds still would go out even if the IRS remained unfunded, because customary rules will be changed to make the payments possible. He told reporters an "indefinite appropriation" was available for the refunds, which would go out as normal.
Trump walked out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday afternoon over the partial government shutdown, Pelosi again rejected supporting new funding for a border wall, according to those in the meeting.

Workers replace sections of the border wall, left, with new sections, right, on Tuesday in Tijuana, Mexico. (AP)

 Although most top Republicans backed Trump on Wednesday -- with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., calling Trump's remarks “a firm commitment to reopening the government while also securing our southern border" -- there were some signs that not all Republicans were aligned with the White House.

GOP West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a member of the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, dismissed Trump's comments that the shutdown could go on for "years." Seven Republicans voted in favor of a Democratic bill to end the shutdown last week without funding for a border wall, and more have come out suggesting that they will back individual bills to fund certain agencies in the federal government without wall funding.
But, any defections were few and far between, Republican leaders insisted.
"Quite frankly, I see no wavering,” North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday.
Some money already has been appropriated to construct additional barriers on the southern border. In March, Congress funded 33 miles of walls and fencing in Texas, and the federal government has started surveying land along the border in the state and announced plans to start construction next month.
The government has laid out plans that would cut across private land in the Rio Grande Valley. Those in the way would include landowners who have lived in the valley for generations, environmental groups and a 19th-century chapel.
Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, meanwhile, announced this week she would visit her state’s southern border with Mexico on Friday.
Grisham, who has described Trump’s idea for a wall as outdated and ineffectual, previously indicated she would reconsider the state’s deployment of National Guard troops to the border by Republican predecessor Susana Martinez. The state sent about 180 troops.