President Donald Trump announced that he has signed an executive order declaring a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border. The declaration allows Trump to divert funds from other departments to construct a wall along select sections of the border.
"We don’t control our own border," Trump said. "We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border, and we’re going to do it – one way or the other we have to do it."
Trump is expected to take $3.5 billion from a military construction budget, $2.5 billion from a Defense Department drug prevention program, and $600 million from the Treasury Department’s drug forfeiture fund. That money, in addition to the $1.3 billion Congress gave him in a compromise funding bill, will provide Trump around $8 billion to build the wall.
"We have so much money we don’t know what to do with it," Trump said. "I don’t know what to do with all the money they’re giving us."
Democrats are expected to file a lawsuit challenging the emergency declaration and Trump said the expects the case will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.
Photo: Getty Images