BORDER/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Trump warned on Wednesday [1-9-19] that he reserved the option of declaring a national emergency to build his border wall without congressional approval. The president, speaking a day after his address to the nation that even some supporters conceded was unlikely to increase public support, headed to a luncheon meeting on Capitol Hill where he faced the urgent task of persuading wavering Senate Republicans that he could still come to an accord with Democrats on border security and end the partial shutdown of the federal government. Asked whether he was still considering declaring a national emergency, an extraordinary measure rarely used by presidents absent an urgent security threat, Mr. Trump said: ‘I think we might work a deal, and if we don’t, I may go that route. I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want.’”
–Michael Tackett, “Trump Again Warns He May Declare National Emergency to Build Wall,” The New York Times online, January 9, 2019