PRESIDENT Donald Trump, as of press time, is in Hanoi, Vietnam for his second rendezvous with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to talk about denuclearization.
This comes despite no concrete verifiable evidence that North Korea has started to comply with the United States’ denuclearization requirement of the United States during their first summit in Singapore.
“We fell in love,” Trump said, touting the “love letters” he received from the dictator and the “love” felt during the summit.
Meanwhile, at the same time in Congress, Trump’s former long-time personal lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen has started giving his testimonies to reveal what he said everything the public needs to know about Trump’s evil deeds in violation of the laws of the land, offering to turn in more evidence to substantiate his allegations.
These are all happening as more people and institutions continue to challenge President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency just so he could get $8 billion from funds already appropriated by Congress for military projects and disaster relief programs — a blatant attempt to circumvent the power of the purse accorded by the Constitution to Congress.
They all argue that there is is NO national emergency and that Trump is abusing his executive power, which could pose a threat to the country’s national security.
On Tuesday, February 26, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to overturn Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the southern border. With a 245-182 vote, the resolution was passed mostly along party lines, with 13 Republicans voting with the Democrats.
This vote, however, fell short of the two-thirds majority required to overcome Trump’s veto threat because more Republicans chose to side with Trump.
As the Washington Post reported, Democrats contend that Trump’s claim of an emergency crisis at the border was baseless, and that “he was embarking on the road to dictatorship by unilaterally declaring an emergency to try to get money from U.S. taxpayers to fulfill an unpopular campaign promise” to build a wall in the U.S.-Mexico border, which he said Mexico would pay for during the campaign season.
The Post further reported that the Tuesday vote by the House was the first time since the passage of the Emergencies Act of 1976 “that the Congress has invited provisions allowing for passage of a disapproval resolution to nullify a presidential emergency declaration.”
Trump accused Democrats of not wanting to protect the borders by denying his demand for $5.57-billion downpayment for his wall. Congress has previously approved $1.6 billion toward strengthening border security through smart and modern technology and adding manpower in legal points of entry and parts of the border, as well as improving barriers already in place in critical areas of the border.
But Congress is not alone in this opposition to Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. On February 18, a coalition of 16 states, including California and New York, challenged the constitutionality of Trump’s declaration in a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco. According to the New York Times report, “the suit argues that the president does not have the power to divert funds for constructing a wall along the Mexican border because it is Congress that controls spending.”
On February 25, 48 former national security advisers and officials who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations — including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel — sent a letter to President Trump, sending the message they are not aware of any emergency that “remotely justifies” redirecting funds to begin construction of a barrier along the southern border.
These officials pointed out that Trump had no basis for such declaration, arguing that illegal border crossings are at near-40 year lows, that there is no documented terror threat as Trump has been claiming without evidence, that immigrants are in fact not found to commit violent crimes as much as Trump paints. U.S.-born Americans have a higher rate of violent crimes committed per government data. Human and drug trafficking will not be affected by the construction of a massive wall as most of these crimes happen at legal points of entry and through tunnels built under whatever existing walls.
Also on Tuesday, February 26, PBS reported that top U.S. military officials told senators in a committee hearing that there is no military threat on the southern border. But Air Force Get. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command said, “Russia’s advancements in training and capabilities, and its intent to hold the US at risk, present an urgent threat to America,” in addition to “real threats” from China.
Trump’s judgment call is indeed questionable. Why is he cozying up with these dictators while alienating our allies, undermining the democratic institutions and the rule of law of the United States of America?
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
