John Oliver slammed President Trumps national emergency declaration that Trump made to secure funding in order to build a wall along Americas southern border during Last Week Tonight on Sunday.
According to Trump, the border suddenly constitutes a national emergency. Or, as he might spell it in a tweet, the Berder Cornstidutes a Nertional Ederdency!!' Oliver said, mocking Trumps misspellings in tweets.
And to be clear, there is zero actual emergency at the border right now, the host continued. Illegal crossings have been declining 20 years and, as weve talked about before on this show, a wall would be expensive and completely ineffective.
On Friday, Trump signed a national emergency declaration to divert $8 billion in funds from the military to build the wall, announcing the news during a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House. Im going to be signing a national emergency and its been signed many times before, Trump said. Its rarely been a problem. They sign it. Nobody cares.
Declaring a national emergency is a big step, Oliver said on Sunday. Emergency declarations are meant to temporarily enhance the presidents power during a legitimate crisis. So, Trump needed to sell this as a real emergency.
However, the host questioned the urgency of the matter, noting that even Trumps reported behavior following him declaring the national emergency implied that the action was unnecessary.
He responded to this newly declared emergency by just hours later flying off to Florida for the weekend, where hes apparently been photographed waiting at an omelet bar, Oliver quipped. You know, the kind of thing you do when America is in crisis.