Not sure it’s been talked about, but on Trump’s claim that he can declare a national emergency to build the wall, legally speaking, he’s likely completely fucking full of shit.

This is basically the Youngstown Steel case. During the Korean War, there was a steelworker strike. This let to a shortage of steel. So Truman tried to nationalize the steel industry. The Supreme Court said that he couldn’t. The most famous bit of the case is from the concurring opinion which said there are three types of executive action: those which are expressly in line with congressional action (laws passed saying the executive can do something); a “twilight” area where Congress has not expressed an opinion on an issue; and a third where the president would be acting in direct conflict with the laws passed by Congress. It’s fairly clear that Congress, through repeated appropriation bills has made clear that there’s no support for the law. If he does attempt to exercise emergency powers, that’s an impeachable offense and should be treated as such