Tempers are fraying after Donald Trump called a national emergency to get his wall built, with a White House adviser clashing with a Fox News host in dramatic style.

Fox News Sunday presenter Chris Wallace forced Stephen Miller to acknowledge that the US President’s declaration was unprecedented, as the senior aide repeatedly attempted to avoid the issue.

“Answer my question, can you name one case where a president has asked Congress for money, Congress has refused, and the President has then invoked national powers to get the money anyway?” asked Wallace.

“Well, this current situation —” Mr Miller began.

“Just yes or no, sir,” Wallace interrupted.

“No,” answered Mr Miller, before raising the example of emergency declarations over Zimbawe as an excessive use of authority, although one such measure was extended by Mr Trump in March.

The debate over the President’s controversial move has been hotly-contested, but Mr Trump may have just settled the discussion, by publicly stating it wasn’t actually necessary to do so.

“I didn’t need to do this,” he told reporters shortly before signing a proclamation to declare the emergency.

He was responding to a question from NBC’s Peter Alexander, who noted Mr Trump criticised former president Barack Obama in 2014 for using executive orders to enact his immigration agenda.

“I could do the wall over a longer period of time,” Mr Trump said in response. “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”

Chris asks Stephen Miller if Trump would veto a resolution of disapproval #FNS pic.twitter.com/KdEfyIDXJb — FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) February 17, 2019

TRUMP ’S WORDS ‘A GIFT’ TO THOSE WHO WANT TO SUE

The candid contradiction isn’t merely a “gotcha!” moment. It could actually be used against the President in a legal sense by those seeking to challenge his grounds to call a national emergency over the border.

Several groups have begun legal proceedings in response to the declaration by two separate watchdog groups.

Advocacy group Public Citizen filed a lawsuit on Friday on behalf of landowners, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued the Justice Department, saying it had failed to provide documents supporting the move. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a suit claiming a border barrier would affect wildlife, and the American Civil Liberties Union said it was preparing a lawsuit arguing that taxpayer money can only be redirected for military construction projects supporting the armed forces.

Joined @ThisWeekABC this morning to discuss how the President’s decision to steal funds from the military and national defense is harmful to our country. Watch here: pic.twitter.com/kgp4Vylncy — Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) February 17, 2019

California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra said on Sunday that the state was working on a lawsuit with “sister state partners”, hinting it could be filed early this week. “We’re confident there are at least eight billion ways that we can prove harm,” he told the Washington Post, referring to the number of taxpayer dollars Mr Trump wants to divert.

“It’s become clear that this is not an emergency, not only because no one believes it is, but because Donald Trump himself has said it’s not.”

Under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, presidents have the broad authority to declare a national emergency and bypass Congress. But according to legal experts, Mr Trump now has to justify the declaration by proving it is “essential to the national defence” by pointing out which of the more than 120 statutes are actually triggered by a national emergency.

University of Alabama law professor Joyce Alene described his statement as “a gift to all the lawyers preparing to sue him”.

Trump, questioned by @PeterAlexander, concedes there’s no national emergency to justify building his wall. “I didn’t need to do this.” “I just want to do it faster.” A gift to all the lawyers preparing to sue him. — Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 15, 2019

Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe said it was quite likely Mr Trump’s words would be used against him.

“He’s certainly made it easier to challenge what he’s doing,” he told MSNBC’s Katy Tur. “You can be sure that’s going to be in every one of the challenges that is brought against him.”

He also compared the declaration unfavourably with previous national emergency calls, concluding “the only emergency is that he was basically a bad negotiator”.

“There have been emergencies in the past — real ones — like the threatened strikes that were going to prevent military equipment from getting to our troops in Korea,” Prof Tribe said. “When Truman tried to deal with that by seizing the steel mills the Supreme Court told him no, that he needs congressional authorisation.

“This time, not only does (President Trump) have direct congressional authorisation, but Congress rebuffed his request, and under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, no emergency has ever been used to spend money that Congress was asked to allow the president to spend and refused to allow him to spend.”

‘HARMFUL TO THE COUNTRY’

Mr Miller insisted the emergency was real, saying Mr Trump only meant he was “not going to ignore the border emergency” by saying he did not have to take action.

“What the President was saying is that like past presidents, he could choose to ignore this crisis, choose to ignore this emergency as others have,” he said. “That’s not what he’s going to do.”

The senior policy adviser said there had been an “increasing number of people crossing” and “a huge increase in drug deaths” since George W. Bush was president.

When asked to justify government statistics that show attempted crossings are at their lowest level in nearly 40 years, Mr Miller replied: “You don’t know what you don’t know, and you don’t catch what you don’t catch. But as a matter of national security, you cannot have uncontrolled, unsecured areas of the border where people can pour in undetected.”

The Democrats have already vowed to take legal action, declaring they will use “every remedy available” to oppose Mr Trump’s declaration.

“Mr. President, how can this possibly be an national emergency if you’re saying you don’t need to do it? Unreal,” wrote Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Twitter.

“I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather to do it much faster.” —President @realDonaldTrump



Mr. President, how can this possibly be an national emergency if you’re saying you don’t need to do it?



Unreal. #FakeTrumpEmergency — Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 15, 2019

The President’s unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist does great violence to our Constitution and makes America less safe, stealing from urgently needed defense funds for the security of our military and our nation.



My statement with @SpeakerPelosi: pic.twitter.com/GAoqNYe5MI — Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 15, 2019

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would take action “in the Congress, in the courts and in the public”.

“The Congress cannot let the President shred the constitution,” Ms Pelosi said. “Donald Trump’s unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist does great violence to our constitution and makes America less safe, stealing from urgently-needed defence funds for the security of our military and our nation.”

Senator Tammy Duckworth told ABC News that “to take money away from (the Department of Defence) in order to build this wall that is essentially a campaign promise, I think, is really wrong priorities, and I think it’s very harmful to the country.”

Mr Trump evidently isn’t worried about being sued. “Sadly, we’ll be sued, and sadly, it will go through a process, and happily we’ll win,” he said.

The border wall has been a key pledge of Mr Trump’s since his first presidential campaign.

In his State of the Union address last week, Mr Trump doubled down on his push for funding, stating: “Now is the time for the Congress to show the world that America is committed to ending illegal immigration and putting the ruthless coyotes, cartels, drug dealers, and human traffickers out of business.”

Acting defence secretary Patrick Shanahan said the military would start looking at how funds could be diverted. “All of this money has been assigned for different purposes, so it comes down to, what are you going to trade off?” he said.