Free Republic

The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to intervene and issue an order that would allow it to move forward and use military funds for a wall on the southern border. In the filing, the administration asked the court to lift a district court order that placed a permanent injunction on the Trump administration’s diversion of some military funds for the border wall. Solicitor General Noel Francisco wrote in his filing that he is asking for the justices to issue an “immediate administrative stay” of the injunction, as the Department of Justice appeals it to the Ninth Circuit....

President Trump on Saturday ripped into what he described as an “activist Obama appointed judge” after a federal judge blocked the administration’s plan to reallocate money to building a wall on the southern border with Mexico. “Another activist Obama appointed judge has just ruled against us on a section of the Southern Wall that is already under construction,” he said. “This is a ruling against Border Security and in favor of crime, drugs and human trafficking.” Trump went on to say that the administration is asking for “an expedited appeal.” U.S District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam’s ruling late Friday temporarily...

A U.S. judge on Thursday sharply challenged a House lawsuit to block construction of President Trump’s border wall after a senior Justice Department attorney said Congress cannot sue to enforce its constitutional power of the purse and that courts should stay out of political disputes between branches of government. The Democratic-led House filed suit in Washington on April 5 to prevent work after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused the administration of “stealing from appropriated funds” by seeking to transfer $6.7 billion more for the effort than the $1.375 billion Congress approved, a shift of money from other projects lawmakers authorized....

The Pentagon has notified Congress that it has authorized the transfer of $1 billion to begin new wall construction along the US-Mexico border

'The president has made this a priority,' Nielsen says. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the debate over President Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the southern border boils down to "pretty simple calculus." Twelve Senate Republicans joined the Democrats' effort last week to block Trump's emergency declaration, including the party's 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The resolution, which the president vetoed the following day, would have blocked Trump from seizing billions of dollars intended for other projects in order to pay for his long-promised border wall. "Did the president have authority to issue the emergency? He did. It's...

On Friday Attorney General Bill Barr sided with President Trump. Barr said the president “absolutely has the right to declare a national emergency on the southern border there. He says the veto is the right thing to do. And the declaration will hold up in a court of law. AG Bill Barr: Mr. President your declaration of an emergency on the southern border was clearly authorized under the law and consistent with past precedent… The humanitarian and security crisis that we currently have right now on the border is exactly the type of emergency that presidents are permitted to address....

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump's veto of legislation blocking the national emergency he's declared at the Mexican border shows he's defying "the Constitution, the Congress and the will of the American people." The California Democrat says the House will vote March 26 on overriding Trump's veto. The chamber seems certain to fall short of the two-thirds majority needed to succeed. That means his emergency declaration would survive, but it still faces several legal challenges....

President Trump flexed his veto for the first time in his administration Friday, rejecting Congress‘ attempt to end his border emergency declaration and halt wall construction. Surrounded by “angel moms” who have lost children to illegal immigrant violence, Mr. Trump called the attempt to stop wall construction “reckless” and “dangerous.” “Today I am vetoing this resolution. Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution and I have the duty to veto it,” he said. He was moving with striking speed, rejecting the legislation just a day after it cleared the Senate on a 59-41 vote. It had previously cleared the...

President Trump has a pool of roughly $21 billion in military construction funds he can use to build the border wall by emergency declaration, congressional aides said Thursday — though much of that is already destined for other projects that would have to be put on hold. The White House said Thursday that the president will follow through on his threat to declare an emergency and use the Pentagon to build fencing, going around a Congress that just denied him most of the money he had sought. “President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated...

Meadows argued the president has access to billions he could use to fund the security wall with Mexico. I know he has three or four different options that are at his disposal hat are legal, some that are in statute already Listen if President Obama can send $1.8 billion to the Iranians, I can tell you, I didn’t appropriate that. Certainly finding a few billion dollars for border security on out southern borders is something this president can do legally and without a challenge Let’s look at 10 USC sections 274 and 284… It says that DOD can help protect...

Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives floated the idea on Wednesday of ending a partial government shutdown by giving President Donald Trump most or all of the money he seeks for border security with Mexico but for items other than a physical wall. Representative James Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat, told reporters that Democrats could fulfill Trump's request for $5.7 billion for border security with technological tools such as drones, X-rays and sensors, as well as more border patrol agents. Representative Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat, also said Democrats would be discussing "substantial sums of additional...

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) called on his Democratic colleagues to give President Trump the funding for his long-desired border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, saying its construction is inevitable. “Give Trump the money,” Peterson told KFGO’s “News & Views” on Tuesday. “I’d give him the whole thing … and put strings on it so you make sure he puts the wall where it needs to be. Why are we fighting over this? We’re going to build that wall anyway, at some time.” The 15-term congressman said top Democrats look at him “cross-eyed” when he makes this suggestion. The funding...

Dear Mr. President, You cannot make a deal with Satan or his pit of vipers in the congress. Period. If you cave on this you will be a one-term president. The democrats will not come your way to accept your offer no matter what you offer. They sense weakness on your part and they're going to go for your jugular. They couldn't care less about the out of work government workers. This is a sledge hammer they intend to use on you no matter what. The only way you can win in this situation is to stand your ground. We...

Senate Democrats are refusing to embrace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rhetoric denouncing border walls as an “immorality,” but they are being careful to avoid undercutting her new role as the party’s leader in the shutdown standoff. Mrs. Pelosi has moved unsteadily since seizing the speaker’s gavel amid the partial government shutdown, including the “immorality” comment and her shifting explanations for why she told President Trump to postpone the State of the Union address. Still, she garners strong support from Democrats on both side of the Capitol for remaining steadfast in shutdown fight and refusing Mr. Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion...

Has President Trump suckered Democrats and the Deep State into a trap that will enable a radical downsizing of the federal bureaucracy? In only 5 more days of the already-“longest government shutdown in history” (25 days and counting, as of today), a heretofore obscure threshold will be reached, enabling permanent layoffs of bureaucrats furloughed 30 days or more.

President Trump hosted a border security meeting at the White House Tuesday afternoon. In an effort to make progress on the government shutdown, Trump invited Republican and Democrat lawmakers to attend with ideas. Not a single Democrat showed up. Their leaders, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, were also missing. “As Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi refuse to negotiate, President Donald J. Trump and his team are working hard to find solutions to solve the humanitarian and national security crisis at the border and reopen the government. The President has a proposal on the table...

Steve Guest Twitter Video at link. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) faced some tougher talk from media hosts, for once, regarding the government shutdown that has lasted 20+ days now. President Trump promised border security during the 2016 campaign. He promised to build a wall. He has to follow through on it. It was one of his signature issues. He’s only asking $5 billion for part of his wall. The Democrats are not willing to play ball after reclaiming the House. Last week, Trump offered to re-open the government in exchange for some of the funding. Democrats rejected...

WASHINGTON—As the partial government shutdown stretches on, some House Democrats have grown concerned by what they see as the absence of a clear strategy from party leaders over how to end it. Some newly elected Democrats are increasingly frustrated that they are taking complaints from angry constituents without having a mapped-out plan to end the partial shutdown—which became the longest in modern history over the weekend. Many believe they were elected to Congress to try to end its dysfunction and had hoped to be reaching a bipartisan compromise over border security to reopen the government. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.,...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused President Trump Thursday of a set-up in their meeting a day earlier, when the president walked out after she told him she’ll never allow him funding for his border wall. Mrs. Pelosi also questioned the president’s motives, saying he’s negotiating from a position of weakness. “I don’t even know if the president wants the wall. He wants a debate on the wall,” she said. The California Democrat has said she would allow a single dollar to go to the wall if it ended the shutdown but has said the president’s current $5.7 billion request is...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is making herself an even bigger headache to her fellow Democrats, giving a wild third response to President Trump's speech, which pretty well eclipses the Democrats' carefully crafted messaging. Which shows just what a mess the Democrats are these days, and how she's happy to be their problem. ~snip~ But that was the least of it. Now we have incoming, buck-private-ranked, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighing in for a third Democratic response, the voice of the radical left, and her messaging was way out in left field compared to the other two. Pelosi and Schumer, whatever the weakness of...