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Trump’s national emergency: from shutdown frying pan to constitutional fire
WASHINGTON — With a few swipes of his Sharpie, Donald Trump assuaged America’s fears of another government shutdown Friday, but not before declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The move is a bid for billions of dollars in wall-building money that critics denounced as an illegal abuse of executive power.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted a photo of Trump signing the emergency declaration while the president was outside in the Rose Garden, hosting another combative, from-the-hip news conference that began with a lengthy celebration of his trade agenda and ended with the suggestion he should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.