As seen from a window outside the Oval Office, President Donald Trump gives a prime-time address about border security Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019, at the White House in Washington. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo government shutdown Trump ratchets up plea for a border wall, calling it a ‘crisis of the soul’ But the president does not yet declare a national emergency or lay out a path for reopening the federal government.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday night made a public plea for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, claiming that law enforcement officials are the ones demanding it, while blaming Democrats for the prolonged government shutdown that has resulted from an impasse over how to pay for the barrier.

The president, however, did not pull the trigger on a national emergency declaration that would potentially allow him to secure wall funding without Congress but would also inevitably draw a nasty court battle. Instead, he dedicated much of the address to blaming undocumented immigrants for many of the nation’s woes, from opioid addiction to violent crime — correlations that have been repeatedly debunked .


“This is a humanitarian crisis. A crisis of the heart, and a crisis of the soul,” Trump said in a rare televised address from the Oval Office.

The president opened his address by stating that the United States is suffering from a humanitarian and security crisis at the border, as he urged Congress to provide billions of dollars for a steel barrier, calling it “absolutely critical.”

“As part of an overall approach to border security, law enforcement professionals have requested $5.7 billion for a physical barrier,” Trump added, even though the wall proposal is his own core campaign promise that he has struggled to fulfill.

The president also tried to present himself as a deal-maker and tried to shift blame to Democrats who have refused to give in to his funding demands.

“At the request of Democrats, it will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall,” he added.

Trump so far has forged ahead with his demands for $5.7 billion in wall funding, while Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have called his proposal “immoral.” The standoff has pushed the government into one of the longest shutdowns in U.S. history.

Trump shot back on the criticism during his address.

“Some have suggested a barrier is immoral,” the president said Tuesday night. “Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences and gates around their homes?”

He continued: “The only thing that is immoral is the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized.”

Trump dedicated most of the end of his address to pushing blame for the shutdown on Democrats, saying the situation “could be solved in a 45-minute meeting” if Democrats agreed to increased physical border security.

In recent days, he has changed tacks, offering a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall and openly flirting with declaring a national emergency to secure the funds.

Congress alone has the power of the purse under the Constitution. But presidents are able to use unobligated military funds during a national emergency. Whether such a crisis exists, of course, is hotly contested, with Democrats noting that there are actually fewer border apprehensions over the past year than in past decades.

An emergency declaration would inevitably invite a court challenge that would leave Trump no closer to getting his wall, even if it would provide the president cover with his base.

The White House counsel’s office has been reviewing the legality of an emergency declaration since last Thursday, according to a source familiar with the process.

The political stakes are spiking as the ramifications of the shutdown are spreading throughout the nation, potentially disrupting tax refunds, airport travel and the paychecks of roughly 800,000 federal workers.

Republican support for an emergency declaration is growing in some corners of the party, as GOP leaders and White House officials see it as a way out of a shutdown fight they’re losing. Others are unsure, viewing it as the kind of end run around Congress that the Republican Party criticized President Barack Obama for doing.

Trump and his aides are now going on the offensive. Besides the prime-time speech, Vice President Mike Pence has been giving TV interviews, top aides are briefing lawmakers and the president is planning a trip to the border on Thursday.

Trump and Pence will also travel to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Senate Republicans, all part of the White House’s campaign to keep rank-and-file Republicans in line behind the president.

Presidential aides also moved quickly to amplify the president’s message. During a conference call with Trump allies and surrogates Tuesday night shortly after the speech, White House communications aides praised the president and criticized Democrats for refusing to agree to his border security proposal.

But Democrats were also eager to make their case. After demanding equal airtime, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered a rebuttal to Trump’s speech Tuesday night, accusing the president of stoking fear and reiterating their calls for him to end the shutdown.

“President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage, must stop manufacturing a crisis and must reopen the government,” Pelosi said.

Schumer called on the president to separate the shutdown from the debate over border security and asked that he take up legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled House last week that would reopen the federal government.

“There is no excuse for hurting millions of Americans over a policy difference,” Schumer said.

White House communications adviser Mercedes Schlapp said Democrats had made a strategic mistake by calling the situation at the border a manufactured crisis, according to a person who participated in the Tuesday-night conference call. She said Democrats were in “denial” about the humanitarian crisis at the border, adding that Trump’s proposals amounted to “common-sense solutions.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had shown “incredible leadership” in trying to solve the alleged crisis, the person said.

For all the fanfare surrounding his Oval Office address, Trump himself was never eager to deliver the scripted speech, according to one former White House official. During a meeting with network anchors hours before his prime-time remarks, Trump expressed confidence in his ability to handle messaging on his own through unconventional methods like the impromptu Rose Garden news conference he held last week.

“He really didn’t want to do it,” the official said, adding that aides who pushed Trump to deliver the speech “should run for cover” if he shows signs of frustration with coverage and reactions.

The most important thing now, according to the same official, is to wait and see how the president reacts and whether his speech makes any difference with red-state Democrats and moderate Republicans, many of whom support border security improvements apart from a physical barrier.

Early reactions indicated that Trump’s remarks did little to sway those on the margins, but won the approval of his base. “Beautiful speech,” tweeted conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who has repeatedly warned Trump that caving on his border wall promise would have catastrophic consequences for the 2020 election.

Some inside the administration said the rebuttal by the Democratic leaders did the president a favor. His was “the least surprising speech he’s ever given,” according to one current official, who said Pelosi and Schumer also repeated their talking points from the past few weeks.

Andrew Restuccia, Marianne LeVine, Eliana Johnson, Burgess Everett and Heather Caygle contributed to this report.

