Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Senator John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) sees the possibility of President Trump declaring a national emergency over the funding of his proposed border wall in order to halt another government shutdown.

“I think what the president is saying is if we don’t compromise — and he’s put compromise on the table, real compromise, things the Democrats want — but if we can’t get compromise out of Speaker Pelosi and get to a good solution, then he would be forced to go the national emergency route,” said Hoeven

Hoeven did concede, however, that the best route forward would be a bill passed by both chambers 

Nevertheless, Hoeven says that whatever solution passed will have to have wall funding. “It needs to include personnel, technology, and funding for a border barrier,” said Hoeven.

In recent days you have seen a change in language from a “wall” to a “barrier.” 

“The best solution is one where congress puts together a funding package for border security, including all three components as I’ve laid out, that is acceptable to the house, the senate and the president. That’s the best solution,” said Hoeven.

Hoeven is one of many lawmakers who has been working on a bipartisan budget deal before the February 15 deadline, but the president has been signaling that he may not give the committee the time to complete his work, even teasing that his State of the Union speech on Tuesday could be “very exciting” in that regard. 

“You’ll hear the State of the Union and then you’ll see what happens right after the State of the Union,” Trump told reporters on Friday.

Watch the full interview below:

Image via screen capture from video source.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter this Sunday morning to express his displeasure at the New York Times report on Don McGahn — the White House Counsel — and his cooperation with the Mueller investigation.

In a series of tweets that started shortly after 3:00 a.m., the President hit many of his usual targets, repeating several times that the investigation — which has realized five convictions, 27 individual indictments, and three corporate indictments — is a “witch hunt,” while trying to shift the narrative on Hillary Clinton and others.

I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018

The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type “RAT.” But I allowed him and all others to testify – I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018

….and have demanded transparency so that this Rigged and Disgusting Witch Hunt can come to a close. So many lives have been ruined over nothing – McCarthyism at its WORST! Yet Mueller & his gang of Dems refuse to look at the real crimes on the other side – Media is even worse!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018

No Collusion and No Obstruction, except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats. All of the resignations and corruption, yet heavily conflicted Bob Mueller refuses to even look in that direction. What about the Brennan, Comey, McCabe, Strzok lies to Congress, or Crooked’s Emails!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018

The Failing New York Times wrote a story that made it seem like the White House Councel had TURNED on the President, when in fact it is just the opposite – & the two Fake reporters knew this. This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People. So bad for America!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018

Some members of the media are very Angry at the Fake Story in the New York Times. They actually called to complain and apologize – a big step forward. From the day I announced, the Times has been Fake News, and with their disgusting new Board Member, it will only get worse!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018

Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2018

The President, while claiming that he allowed the counsel to cooperate, also casts McGahn as a “John dean type ‘RAT.'” John Dean was the White House Counsel under President Richard Nixon, who cooperated with investigations into the Watergate scandal. President Nixon fired Dean.

Trump also compared the investigation to “McCarthyism at its WORST,” an unusual comparison. McCarthyism, named for Senator Joe McCarthy’s infamous attempts to root out supposed treason against the United States by Russians. McCarthyism more commonly refers to reckless accusations, rather than evidence-based investigations.

The Tweet series comes off as more desperate than usual from the President, as he again seeks to view a series of people, from ex-CIA director John Brennan to Hillary Clinton as the real perpetrators of corruption and collusion.

The New York Times has responded to the President’s attack on their reporting, Tweeting their own response to Trump.

The New York Times stands behind the reporting of our Pulitzer-Prize winning reporters @nytmike and @maggieNYT.

Read the article that President Trump has been tweeting about this morning: https://t.co/flzSzluITY

— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) August 19, 2018

John Dean also took to Donald Trump’s favorite medium, responding to the president’s comments.

@realDonaldTrump (I still have trouble using the title Mr. President for someone installed by Putin), I doubt you have ANY IDEA what McGahn has told Mueller. Also, Nixon knew I was meeting with prosecutors, b/c I told him. However, he didn’t think I would tell them the truth!

— John Dean (@JohnWDean) August 19, 2018

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license