President Donald Trump said Thursday he would decide in "the next few days" whether to declare a national emergency to bypass Congress and build his long-promised wall along the nation’s southern border.
In an interview with Sean Hannity — in front of about a dozen Customs and Border Patrol agents standing guard along an unprotected border area —Trump declared: "We're not changing our mind."
"We're going to see what happens over the next few days," he said. "We have the absolute right to declare a national emergency."
But he complained that in talks with congressional Democratic leaders, "It's politics. It's about running for president. It's about 2020. You got to put the country first."
"It's not a money thing," he added. "It's a political thing . . . [Democrats will] do anything they can to win."
Talks between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., broke off abruptly Wednesday after the Democrats refused to offer money for a border wall.