Mitch McConnell Warns President Trump Against Declaring National Emergency To Build The Border Wall

By dividing the GOP, Mitch McConnell means that declaring a national emergency to build the border wall will reveal that conservatives never supported it, which is why they never bothered to fund it (or vote on other immigration bills) despite controlling Congress for two years:

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cautioned President Trump privately this week about the consequences of declaring a national emergency to build his border wall, telling him the move could trigger political blowback and divide the GOP, according to two Republicans with knowledge of the exchange.

McConnell (R-Ky.) told Trump that Congress might end up passing a resolution disapproving the emergency declaration, the people said — which would force the president to contemplate issuing his first veto ever, in the face of opposition from his own party.

McConnell delivered the message during a face-to-face meeting with the president Tuesday at the White House, according to the Republicans, who requested anonymity to describe the encounter. The two men met alone and conversed with no aides present. Their meeting was not publicly announced. …”

I think this is teeing up nicely.

At this point, President Trump has no choice but to declare a “national emergency” to build the border wall. He has already said that going through Congress is a waste of time. This could force the GOP Congress to vote on the issue and go on record supporting both endless wars in Syria and Afghanistan and smoke out their opposition to building the border wall.

The GOP has no objection to spending $38 billion on Israel alone. It has no objection to building a border wall in Jordan. It has no objection to declaring a “national emergency” for the sake of overthrowing the Venezuelan government. The GOP isn’t worried so much about the “precedent” that declaring a national emergency as appeasing their wealthy donors.

The trick is to dupe populist voters into voting for the GOP with campaign rhetoric and failure theater while doing a bait-and-switch and using political power to do things like regime change in foreign countries and pass tax cuts and amnesties for business interests. Trump would divide the GOP by forcing Congress to hold a vote on politically treacherous ground.

What will Trump’s voters think of Sen. Cory Gardner’s 2020 reelection campaign after he votes for endless war in Syria and Afghanistan and against the border wall?