A new poll from CBS News shows that the vast majority of Americans oppose the idea of President Trump declaring a “national emergency” to get his wall built:
Sixty-six percent of Americans overall say President Trump should not declare a national emergency if Congress does not fund a border wall, although most Republicans (73 percent) think he should.
If government funding runs out on Feb. 15 and there’s still an impasse over wall funding, Americans don’t want either side to force another shutdown.
Seventy-three percent of Americans want Mr. Trump to continue negotiating while keeping the government open, rather than demand wall funding if that forces a shutdown. A similar number (75 percent) say congressional Democrats should also continue negotiating, rather than deny funding in a move that might force a shutdown.
But there are partisan differences underlying these views. Republicans are split on what Mr. Trump should do on Feb. 15 if there is no deal. Fifty percent of Republicans say he should demand funding for a wall, even if it means another shutdown, while 50 percent think he should continue to negotiate while keeping the government open.
Most Democrats (65 percent) want their own party in Congress to continue negotiating with the government open, while a third think they should refuse to fund a wall if it means another government shutdown.
While one would think that the fact that the vast majority of Americans oppose using the seemingly phony excuse of a “national emergency” to get funding that he cannot get from Congress, the President is likely buoyed by the fact that a basically equal number of Republicans seem to support the idea. Of course, one has to ask those Republicans how they’d feel if a future Democratic President used the excuse of a “national emergency” to expand the nation’s gun control laws or address climate change. I’m guessing that they would not be quite as enthusiastic.
