United States of Emergency? It is the 32nd in force

US President Donald Trump on Friday finally declared national emergency after Congress rejected his appeal for $5.7 billion in funding for the border wall with Mexico. In true Trump tradition, the president first tried to browbeat the opposition by throwing his toys out of the pram (a.k.a. a 35-day government shutdown, the longest in American history). When that temper tantrum failed to conclude with the outcome he desired, Trump retracted the shutdown but, within three weeks, went ahead with his other threat - that of invoking a state of national emergency to bypass Congress and gain the right to divert $3.6 billion allocated to military construction projects towards building his pet toy - the wall.
Notably, though, as acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has spelt out, the emergency gives Trump access to more than $8 billion in funding, including the $1.37 billion that the Congress had already sanctioned for the barrier, $2.5 billion from counter-narcotics programmes, and $600 million from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund. Is the emergency a constitutional crisis? Perhaps. Is it unprecedented? Hardly.
To be sure, there are 31 active emergencies in force in the United States, the earliest one dating back to the Carter era. That emergency (still in place) is for 'blocking Iranian Government Property' and has been in force since November 14, 1979. In fact, Trump has another three active emergencies to his name, including 'blocking the property of persons involved in serious human rights abuse or corruption' invoked on December 20, 2017, and 'imposing certain sanctions in the event of foreign interference in a United States election' invoked on September 12, 2018.
But it is only the third time that a US president has used an emergency to gain access to funds without legislative approval. The other two occasions were when Bush Sr and Bush Jr invoked it for the Gulf War and after the 9/11 attacks, respectively. But Trump's emergency is different. On both the earlier occasions, the presidents were short of time while reacting to crises, not short of Congressional support.