BORDER/GOVERNMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Donald Trump on Friday [1-11-19] played down the prospects of an imminent emergency declaration to free up funding for his proposed border wall, saying in a reversal that he wasn’t ‘going to do it so fast.’ Locked in an impasse with Democrats over the wall, Trump has said repeatedly in recent days that if he can’t reach a deal on spending, he was strongly leaning toward an emergency declaration. Such a declaration would potentially let him dip into billions of dollars for the project but would be certain to draw immediate legal challenges. ‘What we’re not looking to do right now is [a] national emergency,’ Trump said. ‘I’d rather not do it because this is something that Congress should easily do.’ The about-face came as the idea of invoking the 1976 National Emergency Act drew resistance from some Republicans on Capitol Hill.”
–John Fritze, Eliza Collins and David Jackson, “Shutdown: Trump says he’s not looking to declare emergency for border wall ‘right now’,” USA Today, January 11, 2019 5:10 pm