BORDER/CONGRESS/MEXICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Donald Trump will return to the U.S.-Mexico border next week amid ongoing negotiations to avoid another government shutdown and as the White House lays the groundwork for declaring a national emergency to build a border wall. A day after a State of the Union address in which Trump discussed the need for bipartisanship, the president’s campaign announced he would hold his first political rally of the year on Monday in El Paso, Texas, a city that was featured in his speech. As a bipartisan group of lawmakers races against a Feb. 15 deadline to keep the government open and address Trump’s demand for billions in border security money, the White House has continued to prepare a Plan B approach: Declaring a national emergency at the border to free up funding for the wall. An emergency could give Trump a quick exit from his ongoing impasse with Congress over the wall, but it could also tie his signature domestic policy priority in legal battles.”
–Madlin Mekelburg and John Fritze, “President Trump to hold rally in El Paso after mentioning it in State of the Union,” USA Today, February 6, 2019 11:05 am