By Washington Times. President Trump said Friday he could declare a national emergency on the border and order his government to build fencing without needing to go to Congress for additional funding.

“I can do it if I want,” he said, adding, “I may do it.”

He said he’s still interested in trying to get a deal done with Congress on funding his border wall plans, but he made clear he hasn’t foreclosed other options for erecting the barrier he promised voters in 2016 would be built and paid for by Mexico.

Mr. Trump last month had raised the prospect of declaring an emergency and asking the Defense Department to construct barriers outside of the normal congressional appropriations process.

The Pentagon at the time said it had not developed those plans, but said it did have legal authority to build a wall if it were deemed part of a counter-drug operation or part of a national emergency. (Read more from “Trump Ponders ‘Emergency’ Powers to Build Border Wall” HERE)

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Will Troops Help Build Trump’s Border Wall? No Additional Deployments Planned Yet

By AZ Central. As a partial federal government shutdown nears its third week, President Donald Trump has refused to budge on the central issue in his dispute with congressional Democrats, funding for his proposed wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

With the debate at a stalemate — Democrats continue to oppose additional money — reports surfaced this week about the possibility of the Trump administration requesting the deployment of additional troops to the border to help build infrastructure.

The troops would help build or upgrade 160 miles of barriers along the Arizona and California borders and would be paid by the Department of Defense, which is unaffected by the shutdown, according to NPR, which cited military sources.

Capt. Bill Speaks, a spokesman for Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, told The Arizona Republic that “no decisions have been made on additional troops to support the Customs and Border Protection mission at the Southwest border.”

However, he added that the “additional support for CBP is something we continue to discuss with (the Department of Homeland Security),” which is directly impacted by the shutdown. But because it is a law-enforcement agency, many of the front-line agents and officers continue working, without pay. (Read more from “Will Troops Help Build Trump’s Border Wall? No Additional Deployments Planned Yet” HERE)

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By The Daily Caller. President Donald Trump oversaw his second full year at the helm of the U.S. government in 2018 and delivered on some major promises to his supporters while also facing political setbacks in a tumultuous political climate. . .

Trump’s undoubted biggest accomplishment of 2018 was increasing the Republican majority within the U.S. Senate. The president undertook a grueling travel schedule during the 2018 midterm elections, at one point traveling to three different states per day and holding his signature rallies. Trump demonstrated his remaining ability to draw massive crowds of supporters who turned out to support his chosen candidates on election day. . .

2018 saw the extraordinary summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The results of the summit aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula remain unclear, but the mere fact that it happened at all is a massive change in U.S. policy. Trump spent much of 2017 deriding Kim Jong Un as “little rocket man” while the U.S. and North Korea traded insults. North Korea lobbed several test missiles of extensive range over Japan and into the nearby ocean in an attempt to prove it’s capable of hitting U.S. soil. . .

The Senate may be Trump’s biggest win of 2018, but conversely the loss of Republican control within the House of Representatives will remain a major thorn in his side throughout 2019 and 2020. Republicans lost nearly 40 seats in the 2018 midterm elections, significantly changing the incoming political landscape in Washington. . .

Two years into the Trump presidency he still has not delivered on his signature campaign promise of a wall along the U.S. southern border. Trump frustratedly attempted to explain away his failure with the minutiae of Senate procedure, but his most ardent supporters point out that he did prompt major showdowns and fights with Democratic lawmakers over the issue until December 2018. (Read more from “Trump’s Biggest Wins and Losses of 2018” HERE)

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Trump’s Economy Not Working Way He Touted, but That May Not Be Bad

By Bloomberg. Halfway through Donald Trump’s first term, it’s getting easier to piece together an account of how his policies are supposed to drive economic growth.

And the economy is, in fact, expanding pretty fast — but not necessarily for the reasons Trump said it would. The president promised to squeeze more American growth out of businesses and foreigners. Instead it’s the government, deploying its balance sheet via deficit-spending, that’s doing the work.

The theoretical version of how Trumponomics would succeed might look something like this: After inheriting the most lopsided U.S. recovery of modern times, in which households contributed a record share, Trump would summon reinforcements from two directions. . .

Trump’s policies could deliver gains in those areas over the longer run. The latest numbers on business investment were disappointing, but it’s early to judge the effects of Trump’s fiscal policy, said Stephen Moore, the co-author of the recent book “Trumponomics” and an adviser to Trump in 2016. “I totally reject this idea that the economy is on a sugar high,” he said. “The tax cuts are just kicking in.” (Read more from “Trump’s Economy Not Working Way He Touted, but That May Not Be Bad” HERE)

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