RUSH: President Trump is saying that he will sign and declare a national emergency for the wall. In fact, the conventional wisdom inside the Beltway is this, that eventually Trump is gonna realize that Chuck and Nancy are not gonna budge. That Chuck and Nancy are not gonna budge, they’re not gonna authorize a single penny, much less a dollar, much less $5 billion. The shutdown’s gonna go on and on and on. I’s gonna start damaging and being harmful, so will say the media, and a solution will be required, that it can’t go on in perpetuity.

And the conventional wisdom is that Chuck and Nancy are not gonna cave; that Chuck and Nancy hold all the cards; that Trump is the guy with no hand or a weak hand. Trump’s gonna be the one to have to cave. The way it’s gonna happen is that Trump will not oppose signing the continuing resolution with no money for the wall and then will declare the national emergency to build it, that that will be the solution.

The Drive-Bys are suggesting, and I’m sure this is with some input from nervous Republicans, ’cause there’s always, you know, Lisa Murkowskis out there, there’s always gonna be some nervous Republicans that think this is gonna be ultimately harmful to them and they’ll be urging Trump to fix this. And so the conventional wisdom is that Trump will cave.

But then, to hide the cave, to hide the fact that Trump has given in, he will declare a national emergency, go get money from somewhere to build a wall, at which point the Democrats will go to a friendly court and judge and shut him down like they do on everything, and then the wall will not get built. And Trump will let it die because he will consider himself to have succeeded in showing his base that he was willing to go to the mat, willing to do everything, including declare a national emergency, but look! The courts have shut us down again.

That is what the Drive-By Media is suggesting is on tap. That is how the Drive-By Media are reporting. I guarantee you that they’ve got input from Democrats and Republicans on this. This is how it’s gonna end. That Chuck and Nancy will win because Trump will cave. To hide the cave, Trump will declare a national emergency. Trump’s fans and his base will cheer loudly in support, “Way to go. Should have done this at first.”

Then here comes a friendly judge — find one in Hawaii again or American Samoa, wherever they have to go to find a judge to shut down Trump and his emergency, saying it’s unconstitutional, he can’t do it. And then that’ll have to go to the Supreme Court to be overturned. It will take a number of months for that to happen. Meanwhile, nothing changes on the wall, but Trump will declare victory anyway, despite no wall being built after a national emergency. So just keep a sharp eye because that’s what they’re circulating here as the eventual end to this thing.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Paula in Salem, Missouri. Welcome. Great to have you here. How are you doing?

CALLER: I’m doing well. Thank you, Rush. Love ya. I appreciate your program so much for many, many years. I guess I’m calling to ask for maybe a clarification of your opinion of what you believe, the conventional wisdom that you were talking about last hour, do you believe that the president will lose in the courts if he goes the national emergency route?

RUSH: No. In all of that, I was not telling you what I think about anything. I was telling you what the media has established along with their pals in the Democrat Party as the conventional wisdom. And you can find out who they’re spreading it to by reading various blogs. I picked this up on a couple of blogs. So when you find bloggers reporting what they think is gonna happen, you can bank on the fact that somebody’s feeding them this.

And what is being fed is — and this has to be coming from Democrats through the Drive-By Media, then it spreads from there — that eventually this is gonna end with Trump caving. In other words, there is going to be a bill signed that spends money that reopens the government that will not have a penny in it for the wall or border security. That Trump will then declare, or maybe before this all happens, but it’ll happen very near to each other chronologically, that Trump will declare the national emergency and say he’s going to start building the wall with money from various places in the federal budget.

At which point the Democrats will go find a judge, they’ll find a court and they will sue to stop Trump’s declaration of an emergency on the grounds that he doesn’t have the constitutional power to do it. That they will find a judge to agree with them because they found a judge in every single instance — the travel ban, the revised travel ban. Anything Trump has done, the Democrats have gone and found some commie left-wing judge to shut him down. And they think that what’s gonna happen here is exactly what I just said.

There will not be a penny from the Congress for the wall. Trump will then declare emergency and declare victory. He said that he will win. And they say he’s setting the stage for it already by saying it’s very likely he’s going to be declaring a national emergency. The point they’re making is that Pelosi and Schumer are gonna win. They’re not gonna cave. And Trump’s gonna have no choice, he will not get a negotiated deal, he will not be able to show that he can negotiate with Chuck and Nancy, no Art of the Deal claim for him. They’ll shut him down and shut him out.

So he’ll declare an emergency, he’ll claim victory at that point, claiming that he’s gonna do what Chuck and Nancy don’t want him to do, and then they’re gonna go get a judge to shut it all down. None of this is me. I’m telling you what is being spread around by obvious Democrats and friends in the media as predictions for how this is all gonna end.

CALLER: Well, I think it could go that way, except that I see it as a win for him. That’s just how I see it. I guess they see it as a false victory or — because Nancy and Chuck held the line, that’s a victory for them. But as long as we get that wall, I honestly think the president wins.

RUSH: No, wait.

CALLER: I would never interpret that as a loss.

RUSH: Wait. In this scenario, he doesn’t get the wall because his declaration of emergency is declared unconstitutional, and therefore the money is not permitted to be spent by a judge that the Democrats go find. And that will require Trump and his team to then challenge that judge in the appellate system, which would then, as did the travel ban, go all the way to the Supreme Court, if the Supreme Court decides to hear it. The point is it would delay any work on a wall for months.

CALLER: I agree. It would. I think this scenario is very possible. I really do. But I don’t believe — I read Turley’s piece the other day or day before —

RUSH: Quickly.

CALLER: — and I think that he’s right, that the president will win. Not only does he have the right to declare the national emergency —

RUSH: Wait. Okay. Look. I’m sorry. I’ve gotta take a break. I just don’t have time. I’ll clean this up when we get back.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, let me… I get real frustrated when I fail to communicate. So I’m gonna give this a third shot here. Now, with our last caller she said, “Well, I agree with all that, but I read Turley, and Turley said the president can build a wall — can declare an emergency and use the money — that it’s legal.” I’m not saying that he can’t. All I’m telling you is what I think, based on a couple things I’ve read… Look, I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.

Look, folks, I know where to go to find out who’s telling who what, and I know where to go to find out a bunch of snark about Trump. I know where to go to find out people that hate Trump and think that he’s headed for another imminent defeat, when he isn’t. So I go there. I go there to keep up. I go there to try to stay ahead of what I think is gonna be the next seminal attack on Trump. So here it is again.

This is not my opinion of what’s going to happen. This is my opinion of what’s gonna be reported as having happened. This, in fact, is what I think is really nothing more than the Democrats’ strategy. It is this. Chuck and Nancy will hold out forever. They will not authorize a penny. They will never do a deal with Trump. They will never how Trump to say he did a deal with them. They will never allow Trump to say he beat them in a deal.

They will never allow Trump to call back on The Art of the Deal, what a great negotiator he is, that he knew if he just hung tough that Chuck and Nancy would cave. That’s the last thing Chuck and Nancy are ever going to allow, even if it means the GDP of the country losing half its value. They’re never gonna do it! So what will be the solution? At some point Trump is going to realize this, and this shutdown is going to have to end at some point.

I don’t know when. I’m making no prediction on that. But the way it’s going to end — according to this little prognostication in various media — is that Trump will agree to sign whatever it is that reopens the government and authorizes the expenditure of money, the continuing resolution, with not a penny for border security in it. At that point, Chuck and Nancy claim victory.

They stared Trump down and Trump lost, and the media reports that! Forget what reality is here. I’m telling you what they’re all setting up, what they want to happen. The media will be able to report that Chuck and Nancy — the two morticians — they hung in there and they stared Trump down, and he’s no great negotiator and he’s no pillar of strength, none of this. It was easiest thing they’ve ever done to beat Donald Trump.

This is gonna be what’s in the media.

Trump then will declare the national emergency and claim that he’s gonna build a wall anyway, to hell with Chuck and Nancy, that he didn’t lose, because he was always gonna do this as a last resort. In fact, he’s already talking about it. He’s making it sound imminent that he’s going to declare a national emergency. Just yesterday afternoon he was talking about it. So what happens when he declares the national emergency and goes and gets the money from elsewhere in the federal budget to build the wall?

Chuck and Nancy and the Democrats and the media go find a judge, and they sue to stop Trump’s declaration of a national emergency claiming that there isn’t one and that he has no constitutional authority to do any of this since the Congress hasn’t authorized it and that they will find the judge who says, “Yep! That’s exactly right. I love the Democrats; I hate Trump,” and stop Trump from building the wall.

At that point, the Trump administration would then have to go back to court like they’ve had to do at every one of these things — the travel ban, the travel ban revision. There have been three or four of these things. Trump ends up winning them all, but it takes nine months, eight months to do. Now, none of this is to say that the judge is right. I’m not saying that Trump can’t do this. I’m telling you what I have detected is going to happen.

I think I know what the Democrat strategy here is.

When I say Democrat strategy, it’s media strategy as well. Now, Jonathan Turley can write all he wants and anybody else, too, about how, “Well, Trump has the authority.” There are already national emergencies that are still in existence that have been declared since FDR, since Harry Truman. And that’s true. There’s no question that Trump can declare a national emergency.

There’s no question that Trump can go get money from the defense department or anywhere else to build a wall. No question about it. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying the Democrats are gonna do everything they can to stop that, including going to court and finding a judge to issue an injunction against Trump building the wall and getting money to do it by declaring an emergency.

Now, when this happens, you had better be prepared for the media to be nonstop, 24/7 with stories about how Chuck and Nancy outlasted and outsmarted Trump and Trump had no recourse but than to declare a national emergency but not anybody with a brain really thinks there’s an emergency. It was the last gasp, last-ditch effort and a sensible federal judge thankfully had the foresight to stop the president once again from his…

This is what’s gonna be in the news. Now, the way Trump reacts and deals with this? I haven’t gone far enough to predict that. But in telling you, I’m just trying to give you a heads-up on what’s coming media-wise. I’m not predicting what the outcome of all this is gonna be. What I’ve just portrayed for you is the dream case scenario for the media and the Democrats, because I’m telling you right now, they are dug in. They’re not gonna give in. They don’t think Trump has any leverage on them.

They don’t think, folks, that they’re gonna be hurt politically even if they are seen as responsible for constant flows of illegal aliens coming into the country and wreaking havoc and creating crime. They don’t think it’s gonna hurt ’em. They don’t think there’s gonna be political fallout negative to them whatsoever, and they don’t care. The only thing they care about is stopping Trump. The only thing that’s guiding them is hatred for Trump.

The only thing they care about is getting rid of Donald Trump, either via impeachment or making sure he’s not reelected in 2020. Part and parcel of that is making sure he doesn’t win diddly-squat when his job intersects theirs. Meaning when they have to negotiate things — legislation or things like the wall — they are not give him anything. They’re not gonna do anything that will allow Trump to claim victory over them.

Now, it doesn’t mean Trump can’t claim victory, and at some point I think if, you know, one of these scenarios where a federal judge is found to issue an injunction… I think the day is coming where Trump is gonna say (raspberry) to the judge. He’s been patient with this stuff ever since the first day in office, the first week when they declared his travel ban unconstitutional, when it wasn’t. Nothing that he’s done has been unconstitutional, but they found federal judges — Democrats, Clinton appointees, Obama appointees — to shut it down, and it’s their modus operandi.

So I’m just… This is not a comment on whether Trump can declare a national emergency legally. He can. It’s not a comment on whether he can or cannot legally build the wall after declaring a national emergency. He can do all that. I’m just telling you what the media and the Democrats are gonna do to try to stop it, while at the same time claiming that they shellacked Trump in the negotiations — and you’ll know if this is true.

It won’t be very long, because there will be no way that Trump would declare a national emergency unless negotiations with the morticians have totally broken down — and I would say that they have. I mean, look what they tried yesterday. Trump goes up to meet ’em, and they tell him pointblank, “I don’t even know where you’re here. We’re not gonna give you anything! There’s nothing to say. There will not be any money for wall.”

Pelosi says with gigantic eyes, “There will not be any money for a wall.”

So Trump gets up and leaves. “Okay, fine.”

He passes out some candy, gets up, and leaves. What did they tell the media?

That Trump threw a childlike temper tantrum. And what did the media do, reported it. It’s all over the place that Trump stormed out like a spoiled brat kid. He thought he was gonna go up and really take Chuck and Nancy for a tour around the table. He was gonna win the day and they sent him packing and crying like a stuck little kid. That’s what they reported. Mike Pence in the room, Kevin McCarthy in the room. Didn’t happen. This didn’t happen. Doesn’t matter, New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, all saying that it did.

Now, for me I think Trump is gonna end up skunking these people before all is said and done, and I think what they’re doing is gonna come back and bite ’em big, because they do not have a majority of the American people with them on this position. And the more people to whom this is explained properly, the more people are gonna abandon the Democrat position. Pretty much the people that support the Democrats on this are doing this for one reason, one reason only, they also hate Trump.

This is not even about the issue. It’s not about the money. It’s not about the issue. It’s not about the border. It’s not about security. It’s they hate Trump.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, here’s a deal. Here is a deal being bandied about, and apparently there are six Republican senators behind this deal and if what I’m hearing is correct, they’ve gone to Jared Kushner with this, and they’re trying to get this to Trump.

Here’s the deal. And it may be Kushner’s for all I know. I’m not sure where this started and who’s talking to who. But the details are Trump would get $5.7 billion for the wall, but there would be no asylum reform, there would be no E-Verify. We would not expand available detention space for people demanding asylum. There would be no end to sanctuary cities or states.

In exchange, there would be amnesty for the DREAMers and amnesty for TPS immigrants, H2B. So Trump would get $5.7 billion for the wall and give up amnesty for DREAMers and more H2B visas, but there would be no reform and asylum applications and grants. There would be no end to sanctuary cities. Basically Trump gets the wall and has to give amnesty to DREAMers.

I don’t think this is new. I think this has been floating around for a long time. Chuck and Nancy are wedded to 0.0 for the wall, i.e., no wall. But some Republican senators are trying to come with a solution. Now, here’s Trump this afternoon in McAllen, Texas. Listen to this.

THE PRESIDENT: I even hear certain members of Congress, the Democrats are saying we better get this thing going, this isn’t working out too well for us because nobody’s gonna win the battle of strong borders and no crime as opposed to open borders and crime doesn’t matter, ’cause that’s what they’re saying, crime doesn’t matter.

RUSH: It sounds like he’s not hip to any of these deals here that are being bandied about. Sounds like he’s in this for the long game.