President Donald Trump’s former hard ass supporter Ann Coulter is continuing to flip on him, she’s slamming his national emergency declaration as a way to “scam the stupidest people in his base.” President Trump had this to say at his press conference yesterday when speaking about Coulter:
Ann Coulter Responded to president Trump’s Slam, “The Only National Emergency is That Our President is an Idiot.” This is either something to go off the rails over or she’s going to be best friends with him again like Graham and Flake before her. She did support Trump, but is she that anti trump now? I don’t think so, not so much mad at him for anything he is doing, she’s mad that he is not doing enough ultra right-wing stuff that she prefers is the problem. Not to mention a few weeks ago she also called out the president for not having any backbone, “biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.”
National Emergencies Act
But, President Trump isn’t the only person to use the National Emergencies Act, is he? Since the bill was passed in 1976, more than 59 national state of emergencies have been declared and that’s not including weather emergencies. So when President Trump says, “but nobody cares, they sign it for far less important things in some cases, in many cases.” I’m not arguing with that, I believe he is legitimately correct. Much of the criticism has been that it’s an overreach in his power, but it really isn’t because it’s not unheard of or unusual.
In order to declare a national emergency, the president must give specific reasoning to justify the declaration, even though the law grants the sitting president nearly unlimited freedom to do what he wants. However, Congress does have the power to override the president’s declaration by introducing a resolution. With the resolution, Congress would then need to combine their powers and get a vote to do so, but then it would need to go back to the president’s desk who is the one who initially introduced the declaration. Congress would either need his signature or override his veto power.
President trump has already used the Act three times, one specifically giving him the power to enact sanctions on a foreign power if they meddle in U.S. elections. President Bush did it with Hurricane Katrina and Barrack Obama with the H1-N1 virus. There are currently 31 active declarations still active, Congress meets every 6 months or so to allow continuation. If the act doesn’t get voted on to continue, they do lapse.
Out of the 31 N.E.A.’s 26 of them impose sanctions, 1 is for weapon proliferation, 1 is for trade and three are for other dealings. This was also done with the gulf war and the September 11th attacks on America. The big question where will he get the money from?
The president did predict what he thinks may happen, he sees courts in his future. Trump told reporters he’s “expecting” to be sued for signing a national emergency over funding for his proposed border wall. The President then went on to say, “Sadly we’ll be sued, and sadly it’ll go through a process, and happily, we’ll win.”
I’m not so sure about that. If the courts strike down the emergency declaration, I doubt it would have to do with them not believing there’s a border problem, but more so rule that even if there is an emergency, it’s Congress’s job to remedy, not the president’s.