On Friday, February 15, President Trump signed a national emergency to fund for the border wall and he mentioned that other presidents have taken this same action “for far less important things.”

Other presidents have taken this same action, but many people on Twitter are arguing that Presidents like Obama and George W. Bush took this same action for more “reasonable purposes” rather than to fund enough money for the wall.

President Obama declared a national emergency in 2009 during the swine flu outbreak and President George W. Bush declared a national emergency the day after the 9/11 attacks.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi commented that President Trump is holding the pay of federal workers hostage to extort more than $5 billion to build his border. Other Politicians on Twitter are mentioning that the national emergency is unfair for those families and that Trump is abusing the power he has so that he can commit to his campaign promise. Elizabeth Younger added to Pelosi’s comment on Twitter and said, “It is poor to be taking money away from people who depend on it.”

Trump had mentioned in his speech that “I didn’t need to do this,”  but he is making this action so that it all gets done quicker. Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was pointing out that if there is no need to get it done at the moment there should be no need to make workers sacrifice their pay for his promise.

I spoke with ERHS student, Jessica Gonzalez, and she mentioned that “many of the families who had to take part in the government shutdown are still trying to recover and it is totally unfair.”

Many people and politicians are upset with the choice that is being made because they mainly mention that is unfair and it is not a good enough reason to hold a national emergency.

Via Twitter, Speaker Pelosi says that “today’s declaration is an abuse of power…” many people in the comment section go on with asking how is it possible for him to get away with this.