How Trump is using 'emergency declarations' to advance his 'political agenda'

27 January

President Donald Trump issued a long list of executive orders after returning to the White House, some of which involve emergency declarations.

The Washington Post's Karen Tumulty, in her January 27 column, examines Trump's use of emergency declarations during his second term. And she argues that he is declaring "national emergencies" where they don't exist.

"The U.S. oil and gas industry is booming, with production at record levels, while renewable sources of energy are expanding at a healthy clip and gasoline prices are at their lowest level in more than three years," Tumulty observes. "To President Donald Trump, all this good news amounts to a 'national emergency.' Or so he claimed in one of the flurry of executive orders signed on his first day in office."

Tumulty continues, "Dire, too, is the situation at the southern border, where, in another emergency declaration, Trump deemed there to be an 'invasion' taking place, which is causing 'widespread chaos.' Never mind Border Patrol statistics saying that, thanks to stronger enforcement, the number of people crossing illegally has dropped sharply, and is lower than it was at the end of Trump’s first term."

The Washington Post columnist laments that by declaring a "national emergency" where there isn't one, a president "gains the ability, usually with just a signature on an executive order, to bypass laws and regulations."

"But at times, these proclamations are not tools for dealing with an actual crisis," Tumulty warns. "Instead, they are used to sweep away impediments to a chief executive's political agenda…. Trump's border declaration, for instance, opened the way for him to unlock billions in funding that Congress had denied for building a wall there — a rerun of what he did as president in 2019, when he cited a law permitting the executive to use military construction funds in a declared national emergency."

Tumulty adds, "Various laws have emergency provisions that would allow Trump to both deploy the 10,000 troops that he is thinking of dispatching to assist Border Patrol agents and shut down applications for asylum by migrants…. Given Trump's hold over the GOP, it is hard to imagine that a Congress where both chambers are in Republican hands will do much to constrain him. So, expect to hear more manufactured emergencies coming from the Trump White House — each one chipping at the guardrails that limit presidential power."

Karen Tumulty's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required).

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