“NATIONAL EMERGENCY” A STRATEGIC CHESS MOVE?

After a few months of deep speculation and inference, President Trump declares a national emergency – citing a crisis at the southern U.S. border. But in this case, what exactly constitutes a crisis at the border? Depending on who you ask, you get a completely different answer.

This is another one of those decisions that is heavily influenced by media – Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and such. Since the government shutdown, pundits and so-called “political commentators” on Fox News have been urging the president to declare a border emergency. When you look at it from this point of view, it feels like less of a solution to a problem and more of a political chess move; considering how long the shutdown went on and the non-resolution that fixed it, who’s to say that the president won’t continue a tug-of-war with Congress over the funding of the proposed border wall?  

So we finally get this “national emergency” but, really, it’s not a national emergency. The only crisis that is being discussed is the administration’s attitude towards illegal immigration and the caravan of migrants that were moving toward it. Why is funding for the border a national emergency now, when the Republican party controlled the legislative/executive branches for the first two years of the administration? Sure, this could be a calculated decision to prevent another shutdown, but a shutdown is a result of policy difference between Congress and the executive branch. Shutdowns are resolved through bipartisan decisions; that’s why they’re only temporary. Declaring a national emergency after initiating the longest government shutdown in history sounds like a power move to me. 

All of this contradicts the simple idea of a president, an idea that has changed over the decades. Yes, the president has to fix problems on the fly – that’s what the job was conceptualized as – but the president also has to work with Congress and the other branches on certain issues.

From what I see of the border issue, immediate action could be necessary, but not as urgent as issues occurring for the past few years: the Flint water crisis, the multiple hurricanes that hit the southern Gulf states and, of course, Puerto Rico.

The President’s actions toward the last disaster falls in line with his views on close allies (Puerto Rico being an actual American territory), where he tries to point the finger at someone even when there isn’t anything to blame. Similarly, he now points the finger at Congress and Democrats for the shutdown and national emergency – which he says he “didn’t need to do.”

It makes me wonder: If he didn’t need to do this, then what makes it an emergency and why did he declare it? This could all be a potential house of cards moment. Let’s see how it all pans out.