Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – Trump’s prime-time address, scheduled for 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Wednesday) will be his latest attempt to persuade Congress to fund construction of a huge barrier along the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border.
President Donald Trump will make his case to Americans on Tuesday that a wall is urgently needed to resolve what he calls a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, trying to win support in a dispute that has sparked an 18-day partial government shutdown.
Democrats in control of the U.S. House of Representatives oppose the plan and said they would not fund it.
Trump has in recent days backed away from demanding a concrete wall to stop illegal immigration, shifting instead to touting steel fences in the hope that will draw more support. But negotiations between the two sides have failed.
Trump is considering declaring the border situation a national emergency, which could allow him to bypass Congress’ mandate to approve federal spending and to build the border wall without its approval.
Such a step, however, would likely face immediate legal challenges, and Democrats accuse the Republican president of manufacturing a crisis.
In an evening meeting on Capitol Hill between Vice President Mike Pence and congressional Republicans, the emergency declaration idea was not discussed, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters.
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The White House has not said why the situation might constitute a national emergency. In television interviews on Tuesday morning, Pence said Trump would tell Americans there is “a humanitarian and security crisis” at the border.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday found that 51 percent of adults mainly blamed Trump for the shutdown, up 4 percentage points from late December, while 32 percent blamed congressional Democrats and 7 percent faulted Republicans in Congress.
Republican lawmakers have increasingly expressed concerns about Trump’s handling of the long-running dispute over the border wall.
Mac Thornberry, the senior Republican on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, told reporters he opposed using military funds to build the wall, as Trump has suggested.
“Border security is very important,” Thornberry said, adding: “It is not a responsibility of the Department of Defense.”
On Monday, in an interview with the Argus Leader newspaper in South Dakota, Republican Senator Mike Rounds said the prolonged government shutdown was “frustrating,” citing worries about the impact on federal workers in his home state and the possibility that low-income residents could see interruptions in food aid.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Tuesday that his department was taking steps to ensure full benefits through February for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, popularly known as food stamps, for low-income Americans.
