The adage “get back on the horse” is used to describe a situation in which a person or group of people reattempt an activity after having previously failed. As the example explains, if one were to fall of a horse whilst riding, assuming no grave injuries were caused, they should muster the courage to try once more. Now, this adage assumes that the person or persons who “fell off” during an activity has the ability to try once more. Sometimes a situation presents itself in which there is simply no point of trying, but it takes awhile to reach that point.
Over the course of the last few months, President Donald Trump has caused uproarious anger among members of the Democratic Party. The Dems are furious that President Trump has continued to attempt to declare a national emergency to allocate funding to construct a border wall along the US-Mexico border.
Initially, Trump threatened Democrats with a government shutdown if they failed to acquiesce to his demands, and, as many of you are aware, he made good on this threat. Back in January, Trump shutdown a quarter of the federal government including the Department of Justice, Interior, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Immediately following President Trump’s introduction of his panicked declaration, Congress unilaterally passed a resolution terminating Trump’s actions. Naturally, this made the president very angry, and several people close to Trump suggest that we won’t like him when he’s angry. While that’s all well and good, a good amount of people don’t fancy him in general.
Moving forward, earlier this month President Trump exercised, for the first time during his presidency, his right to veto a resolution passed by Congress. As for the bill in question, Trump vetoed Congress’ attempt to terminate the national emergency declaration.
The House on Tuesday pulled out all the stops to override Trump’s veto but, to no avail, their efforts failed. According to Vox, in order to override a presidential veto, House Democrats “would have needed two-thirds of the chamber’s support, or 290 votes. They were 42 votes shy, despite convincing 14 members of the Republican Party to join the cause. Despite the disappointing attempt made by the House to stop Trump’s veto, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tried to find a silver lining for the situation.
“Whether we can succeed with the number of votes is not the point. We are establishing the intent of Congress. The president has decided to be in defiance of the Constitution, to deface it with his action. Both houses of Congress in a bipartisan way sent him a bill that said this is how we will address border security. He had to sign the bill to keep the government open. Trump defied the Constitution with his action. Congress has overridden that. He did veto it.”
–Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Speaker
The Trump administration made an incredibly bold move in overriding the actions of a bipartisan-backed congressional resolution. To some this may be just another disagreement from President Trump, but to others this is an indication that Trump is stubbornly determined to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Congress will do what they can to defend the constitution and stop Trump from using funds otherwise allocated for a true national emergency.
The National Emergencies Act of 1976 allows any sitting president the ability to determine, at her, discretion what constitutes a true emergency. Taking that into consideration, I’m not sure how President Trump’s arguments will hold up in court when he tells a judge that our nation is under threat of siege along out Southern borders.
