Comedian John Oliver on Sunday took aim at President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to fund a border wall, saying that the president is wrong in his claims that there is a crisis along the southern border.
“According to Trump, the border suddenly constitutes a national emergency, or as he might spell it in a tweet, ‘the berder constidutes a nertional ederdency,'” Oliver said on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” in reference to a Trump tweet where he referred to hamburgers as “hamberders.”
{mosads}“And to be clear, there is zero actual emergency at the border right now,” Oliver continued. “Illegal crossings have been declining for 20 years and, as we’ve talked about before on this show, a wall would be expensive and completely ineffective. “
The comments from Oliver came just days after Trump declared a national emergency to divert $8 billion in funds from the military to build a long-promised wall along the southern border.
Trump made the announcement as he agreed to sign a congressional spending bill that did not include the $5.7 billion in funds for a border wall he had originally demanded.
Oliver called out many of the comments Trump made to justify his emergency declaration, noting how the president said, “I didn’t need to do this.”
“Well it’s not an emergency then, is it?” Oliver asked.
Oliver later joked that the president’s actions in the hours following the announcement again showed why the executive action was unnecessary.
“He responded to this newly declared emergency by just hours later flying off to Florida for the weekend, where he’s apparently being photographed waiting at an omelette bar,” Oliver said. “You know, the kind of thing you do when America is in crisis.”
Trump acknowledged on Friday that the emergency declaration would likely face legal challenges. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Sunday that the state would “definitely and imminently” file a lawsuit against the administration over the order.