DONALD TRUMP AT THE FOOT OF THE WALL

Donald Trump traveled Thursday to McAllen, a Texas city bordering Mexico, and defended his controversial "wall" project. "Nothing like a wall," he said

The Democratic opposition, now the majority in the House of Representatives, categorically refuses to release the $ 5.7 billion for the wall.

On Sunday, the shutdown, the partial paralysis of the administration with 800,000 federal employees who are either technically unemployed or required to work without being paid, will officially become the longest in history.

Donald Trump canceled his visit to Davos at the end of January. By taking responsibility for the shutdown, Donald Trump is linking his fate to the success of the wall on the border with Mexico.

And if the stalemate continues, he threatened to declare a national "emergency" to activate extraordinary powers to obtain funds from the defense budget, thus bypassing Congress.

"We have the absolute right to declare a national emergency and it is a matter of security.

It's a national emergency. If you watch what happens, "said Thursday the US president, interviewed by the channel Fox News. At the risk of going from a budget crisis to a politico-legal crisis.

Today, nearly 1,200 km of walls already exist between the two countries. Already in 1978, Jimmy Carter found the funding to erect barriers three meters high, called "Tortilla Curtain" George HW Bush followed suit and even the Democrat Bill Clinton, who had eight new sections erected in jail corrugated steel.

The idea does not come from Donald Trump who, however, wants to make it a symbol of his mandate.

It is with globalization that the need to erect walls is becoming more and more felt among people eager for protection.


Andrew Preston for DayNewsWorld