Their disagreement has led to a protracted shutdown affecting vast swaths of the federal government that have nothing to do with the construction of a wall between the United States and Mexico.
But as the government shutdown neared the end of its third week, the president left Washington with no additional negotiations scheduled with congressional leaders. In remarks to reporters Thursday, Trump left open the possibility of declaring a state of emergency, which could allow him to bypass Congress to fund the wall.
Asked if he would make such a declaration, an action that would face legal challenges, Trump said, “If this doesn’t work out, probably I will do it, I would almost say definitely. This is a national emergency.”
The president held a brief and contentious negotiation with Democrats and Republican leaders Wednesday in the Situation Room that ended abruptly when he stormed out of the room after Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuffed his overture to reopen the government in exchange for wall funding. Pelosi and Democrats have consistently said that they would be willing to negotiate border security issues with him if he would reopen the government, even as Pelosi has held firm to the position that she does not support funding for a barrier wall.
Before his departure, Trump denied Democrats’ reports that he slammed his hand on the table and had what Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, called “a temper tantrum.”
“I didn’t smash the table. I should have,” Trump said later Thursday morning.
Trump also addressed his longtime promise that Mexico would pay for the border wall.
“When during the campaign I would say, ‘Mexico is going to pay for it,’ obviously, I never said this, and I never meant they are going to write out a check,” Trump said. That statement was an apparent contradiction of what he has previously said, including in December when he wrote in a Twitter post, “I often stated, “One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall.”
On Thursday, Trump repeated his assertion that Mexico would foot the bill through a renegotiated trade deal, even though the deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement does not specify that Mexico would pay for the wall or divert funds to do so. The agreement has yet to be approved by Congress.
In a meeting with network anchors Tuesday before his address to the nation, the president dismissed his trip to McAllen, a border community where crime is near a 30-year low, as a “photo op” that he was doing because his top communications advisers counseled him to do.
In Texas, a crowd of supporters with flags and “build the wall” signs gathered near the Rio Grande before Air Force One landed Thursday. While in Texas, Trump is expected to meet with Border Patrol officials who are being forced to work without pay because of the funding impasse.
The president maintains he has the option of declaring a national emergency to fund construction for the wall, perhaps the central promise that he made to his political base during his campaign, and bypassing a legislative solution. The head of the Army Corps of Engineers traveled with Trump to Texas. Redirecting funds from the Army’s construction agency to build the wall is one option Trump could use in a national emergency.
Trump said he has the legal authority to make the declaration. “This is a thing that the lawyers tell me is 100 percent,” Trump said.
If the president were to declare a national emergency, which some legal experts say is within his authority, it is sure to stoke debate in Congress.
To bolster his campaign for the wall, the president has also scheduled an interview with the Fox host Sean Hannity, who will broadcast his show Thursday night from McAllen. Hannity is one of the president’s highest-profile supporters and is highly influential among his political base.
The president’s trip comes a month before some bollard wall construction in the area, based on a previous congressional appropriation, is set to begin.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.