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Mick Mulvaney: President will declare a national emergency to use $8B to build border wall. Breakdown: $1.375B from deal, $600M from Dept of Treasury’s forfeiture fund, $2.5B from counter drug activities from at DOD, $3.6B from military construction. Goal: 234 miles
WH officials say the president will be using NO money from disaster funding so states like Texas and places like Puerto Rico will not have hurricane money taken away from them.
White House officials say they aren’t worried about President Trump’s declaration setting a precedent because they believe the authority comes a 1976 law and that the president is acting within his rights.
I’m here in the Rose Garden at the WH and there aren’t any teleprompters set up for President Trump to use as was the case during his last Rose Garden statement.
President Trump now talking about summit with Kim Jong-UN. “I hope we have the same good luck as we had in the first summit.”
Pres Trump: “We are going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border.” He adds that ppl are lying when they say drugs are mostly coming through the ports of entry. Note: His own government’s statistics show that most drugs are smuggled through the border.
President Trump: “Walls work.” He adds that people can’t take human trafficking victims through ports of entry.
President Trump: “I’m going to be signing a national emergency and it’s been signed many times before..It’s rarely been a problem...no body cared.” He adds that other presidents’ national emergencies must have been “boring.” 
President Trump has had two women whose loved ones were killed by undocumented immigrants stand up and show photos of their late family members. Here’s one woman who just stood up to show a photo of her husband.
President Trump is now admiring that some countries give the death penalty to drug dealers. “You can end a drug problem,” he says. Note: The First Step Act the president signed was about rethinking how harsh drug laws were in the past.
President Trump says he will use part of national emergency used by President Obama. “By signing the national emergency...We want to stop drugs from coming into our country. We want to stop criminals and gangs.”
President Trump is talking about the “incredible talent” in the front row of his remarks. There are a number of officers from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol looking on as well as Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.
President Trump says the national emergency order has been signed and he’ll do final paper work today. “We will then be sued...End up in 9th circuit...Hopefully we will win the Supreme Court.”
President Trump: “On the Wall they skimped...I’ve already done a lot of wall for the election, 2020.” Note: No new wall has been constructed by the Trump administration yet.
President Trump now says President Obama was close to going to war with North Korea and that Obama told him the biggest problem was North Korea.
President Trump says President Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize after 15 seconds and that Obama didn’t even know why he got the award. Trump then complained, “I will probably never get it.”
My Qs I didn’t get to ask: What do you say to ppl who think saying for wks that you’ll declare a national emergency before doing so is evidence that it’s not a real emergency? How do you reconcile saying Obama subverted constitution and then use him as a model for declaration?
Also be clear, the president made several misleading statements including that govt data backs up his claims that drugs aren’t coming through ports of entry, that there is an invasion, and that human traffickers can never come through ports of entry. Govt datat shows the opposite
