President Trump declared a national emergency to secure funding for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Video: Joy Yi/Photo: Oliver Contreras/The Washington Post)
Where to begin with President Trump’s rambling news conference to announce he was invoking a national emergency to build a border wall? It was chock-full of false and misleading claims, many of which we’ve previously highlighted, either in our database of Trump claims or our list of Bottomless Pinocchios. Here’s a summary of 14 of the most noteworthy claims, starting with immigration ones first.
“So I’m going to be signing a national emergency. And it’s been signed many times before. It’s been signed by other presidents. From 1977 or so, it gave the presidents the power. There’s rarely been a problem. They sign it — nobody cares. I guess they weren’t very exciting. But nobody cares. They sign it for far less important things in some cases — in many cases.”
We will leave it to the courts to sort out whether Trump’s action is constitutional or not, but Trump oversimplifies the rationale behind the National Emergencies Act of 1976. Previously presidents acted with authority inherent in the Constitution, but Congress intended to formalize the process, including terminating standing emergencies. The law was intended to clarify presidential power and give Congress the option to thwart a presidential declaration, not to give “the power” to presidents. Originally, that required simply passage of a resolution by both houses of Congress, but a Supreme Court ruling in 1983 forced Congress to amend the law to require a presidential signature or overturning a presidential veto.