• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Donald Trump uses TV address to press for border wall funding

Donald Trump uses TV address to press for border wall funding

President Donald Trump used a rare national address to warn of a “growing humanitarian and security crisis” at the southern US border, but stopped well short of declaring a national emergency — a move that could have prompted litigation and a backlash from Congress.

The president used the televised nine-minute address, which was broadcast by all the major US networks, to repeat his insistence that the US needed $5.7bn in funding for a border security wall, ramping up his fight to win the public opinion war over the continuing federal government shutdown.

He also blamed the Democrats for the government shutdown prompting Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, to shoot back that they wanted greater border security and were willing to end the shutdown but not with funding for the wall.

In his address, Mr Trump alleged that the border crisis was hurting American workers looking for jobs, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, while fuelling illegal drug use and violence against US citizens.

“Thousands of more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now,” Mr Trump declared, sitting at his desk in the Oval Office. “The federal government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only: because Democrats will not fund border security.”

Mr Trump and Democrat congressional leaders have held firm in their positions, with the president sticking to his demand for a physical barrier and his political opponents insisting that they will not back any funding bill that includes money for a wall. The shutdown is now the second-longest in US history.

Previously, Mr Trump had suggested that he could potentially declare or make the case for a national emergency at the border. Such a move would allow him to circumvent Congress and build the wall without US lawmakers’ approval, allowing him to fulfil one of his key campaign promises. Yet on Tuesday he did not touch on the issue, a sign of the potential political and legal backlash such a declaration could incite.

Instead, Mr Trump chose to pin blame for the shutdown on Democrats who he falsely claimed were unwilling to devote any funds to border security.
The president said he had invited Democrat congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday to continue negotiations over reopening the government. “This situation could be solved in a 45-minute meeting,” he said.

In a separate televised address after Mr Trump, Ms Pelosi and Mr Schumer noted that Senate Republicans and House Democrats had been willing to pass short-term spending bills to keep the government funded but that the president had been unwilling to sign them.

“The president is rejecting these bipartisan bills which would reopen government — over his obsession with forcing American taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall,” Ms Pelosi said.
Mr Schumer said Democrats would refuse to be governed “by temper tantrum”.

He continued: “Make no mistake: Democrats and the president both want stronger border security. However, we sharply disagree with the president about the most effective way to do it.”

Much of the media coverage of Mr Trump’s address focused on fact-checking his assertions on the border. In the run-up to the speech, some US news outlets expressed concern that Mr Trump was using the address as a publicity stunt, as he sought to gain the upper hand against his Democratic opponents.

In his speech, Mr Trump alleged that passing the White House’s bill to fix the border crisis, and build a border barrier, was a moral decision needed to protect the lives of more US citizens who were in danger of being hurt by illegal immigrants, as well as the lives of migrant women and children who were being used as pawns, he said.

“How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?” he asked. “This is a choice between right and wrong.”