The Office of Management and Budget is gearing up for the partial shutdown to continue through February, and aides have discussed using Trump's Jan. 29 State of the Union to admonish Democrats over their opposition to his $5.7 billion request for border wall funding.
He received an unequivocal ‘no’ from Pelosi about funding, specifically for a wall. That was the moment to declare a national emergency. If he uses the SOTU speech to admonish, but not declare the emergency, he can’t be taken seriously. He had a Republican led House for two years.
His legislative affairs director, Marc Short, quit because he knew they couldn’t get serious agenda issues though, even with the majority. They only passed this wall funding at the 11th hour, after many of them had quit or been defeated in the midterms. It’s just not credible to continue saying ‘cisis’ and ‘emergency,’ if he’s not going to take the action he keeps saying is within his authority.