Donald Trump speaks with New York Times reporters in the White House Oval Office, January 31, 2019 (Tom Brenner/New York Times)

Donald Trump dismisses Republican-Democrat talks on border security and renews his threat of a national emergency, bypassing Congress to get $5.7 billion for his Wall with Mexico.

Last Friday, Trump retreated and called off his 35-day Trump Shutdown of the Federal Government, without a penny for the $25 billion Wall. Congress reopened agencies with three weeks of funding and embarked on discussions over border security.

But at the end of his statement last week, Trump added the threat of another shutdown or a national emergency. Throughout this week he has stayed out of the discussions, but put a series of lies and distortions as he insisted, “BUILD THE WALL”.

On Thursday, Trump followed more garbled and deceptive tweets with an interview with The New York Times. He dismissed the cross-party talks and provisions — agreed in Government funding bills which he rejected before and during the shutdown — such as more border agents, more judges to hear migration cases, infrared technology, and electronic surveillance.

I think it’s a waste of time….They’ll probably be overly generous with things that you don’t need in terms of money. They’ll give you more money than you need for things that won’t help very much. And they’ll give you money for good things, too. But based on what I hear and based on what I read, they don’t want to give money for the wall.

He took aim in particular at Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

If she doesn’t approve a wall, the rest of it’s just a waste of money and time and energy because it’s, it’s desperately needed. People are flowing in.

Trump then hinted at the national emergency declaration, under which he could take money from the Department of Defense for his Wall, “Ultimately I think I’ve set the table very nicely….I’ve set the stage for doing what I’m going to do.”

He concluded with the illusion that enhancement of border fencing is his Wall: “You know I’m building the wall. You know that. I’m building the wall right now.”

Trump’s Twitter Lies

Trump fired out nine tweets, including a brief video statement, about The Wall and migration on Thursday:

Trump supported his message with more lies and distortions. He tried to whip up fear of another caravan travelling from Central America — the “attempted Invasion of Illegals” — and implied that The Wall would stop Mexican murderers from crossing the border. He misrepresented a record-setting drugs seizure as justification for the 30-foot-high barrier.

In fact, the drugs were not found in the areas where a Wall would be constructed but at the US port of entry at Nogales, Arizona.