Sarah Ridley

Professor Colvin

English 1201

17 February 2019

News Sources Evaluation

My topic was on the recent news about Donald Trump’s call for a national emergency.

The topic interested me because he is the president of the country and people seemed very upset

with the national emergency. In the various articles they talked about how Trump’s decision for

the national emergency could’ve been avoided and that it even split the republican’s stance on

the national emergency. I also chose this topic because it had to do with where the taxpayer’s

money was going to during the national emergency and that the money would go to building the

wall much faster and would take away from other necessities. Overall, the topic is current and

has an effect on the public and their money and has caused senators to be outraged.

The first article I read was “The Hidden Climate-Change Behind Trump’s ‘National

Emergency’” which was about how with the building of the wall at a faster pace can affect our

climate. The article stated that “George W. Bush’s administration was handing its climate policy

over to ExxonMobil and silencing its own scientists to deny the threat of global warming, the

Defense Department—in contrast—had free rein to assess potential threats, even the ones the rest

of the government was pretending did not exist” (Ehrenreich) that supports the theory that the

presidents are building borders and walls to hide the severity of global warming. This would be
used to support that with building the wall it cuts out the wild life from crossing the border and

could leave an even more negative affect. This article overall states that the building of the wall

is hiding the global warming issue and that it can affect the climate in a more negative way rather

than trying to resolve the problem.

The Next article I read was “White House defends Trump’s emergency declaration as

lawsuits and political battles mount” which talked about how Trump declaring a national

emergency could be not legitimate but rather used to take taxpayers money to build the border

wall faster. To support the claim the trump stated to the public that “I didn’t need to do this, but

I’d rather do it much faster” (Wang) which states that he believed that it wasn’t a valid national

emergency he just wants to build the wall faster because Congress didn’t want to give him the

money to build the wall. It also states that the declaration of the national emergency is a fight

over the over funding for the construction of the wall. This would redirect the taxpayer’s money

to pay for the wall and build the border but that has caused a lot of anger including some lawsuits

on the national emergency.

The third article I read was “’Many of us are concerned’: Lawmakers react to Trump’s

national emergency declaration” which was about how many peoples are concerned that the

national emergency isn’t legitimate but to get money to fund the wall. This article talks about

how “Congress could pass a resolution disapproving of the emergency declaration, which

it has the power to do under the 1976 National Emergencies Act” (Smith) which would

over power the president’s national emergency and sway the taxpayer’s money back to

what it was paying before. The Democratic senators believed that the national

emergency is a hoax to get the money faster to build the wall and even the Republicans

can’t tell if the president is being childish that he didn’t get the money from Congress to

build the wall. Overall, the article stated that the president was using the national
emergency to get around not having the money by taking the taxpayer’s money and even

the lawmakers are having trouble backing up the president.

The last story was “Fox’s Bill Hemmer calls Trump’s national emergency speech “a tour de

force”. This was a video on FOX News that had the newscasters talk about Trump’s national

emergency call he caused a public outburst and even some court time. The backup that was used

was Trump’s speech on why he has called a national emergency and he even answered questions

from the public. Also, that with the lawsuits the people are angry that their tax money is being

spent on a wall that Congress didn’t want to fund and has tried to cheat the system and build the

wall faster than it can be built with the money he was actually given by Congress. Overall, the

video didn’t give any bias on their point of view of the topic but the overall view of the issues

going on since the call of the national emergency.

Overall, Donald Trump’s claim for a national emergency is flawed because

of what he has said and what has happened in the past. I believe that my alternative,

mainstream, and social media sources were better than my critical media source

because they provided more information on the issues at hand along with quotes from

representatives. Those three articles really focused on how the national emergency could

be seen as bad and that the senators can agree with the public on how they are angry

with it. In conclusion, the articles I read stated that Trump was using the national

emergency as a way to receive the taxpayer’s money to fund his wall and to build it faster

when Congress wouldn’t supply the money he wanted.

 Works Cited

Ehrenreich, Ben. “The Hidden Climate-Change Story Behind Trump's 'National

Emergency'.” The Nation, 16 Feb. 2019, www.thenation.com/article/walls-and-borders-

are-this-countrys-most-consistent-climate-change-adaptation/.

Wang, Amy B. “White House Defends Trump's Emergency Declaration as Lawsuits and

Political Battles Mount.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 17 Feb. 2019,

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/17/uncharted-territory-political-legal-hits-

continue-after-trumps-emergency-declaration/?utm_term=.401131841b94.

“Fox's Bill Hemmer Calls Trump's National Emergency Speech ‘a Tour De Force.’” Media

Matters for America, 15 Feb. 2019, www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/02/15/foxs-bill-

hemmer-calls-trumps-national-emergency-speech-tour-de-force/222900.

“'Many of Us Are Concerned': Lawmakers React to Trump's National Emergency

Declaration.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group,

www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/many-us-are-concerned-lawmakers-react-trump-s-

national-emergency-n972611.