Hours before the crucial vote, the president tweeted, "The Southern Border is a National Security and Humanitarian Nightmare, but it can be easily fixed!"
ADVERTISEMENTPresident Donald Trump on Thursday pledged to veto a resolution that would terminate his national emergency declaration just hour before the Senate is set for a showdown vote on the measure.
"A big National Emergency vote today by The United States Senate on Border Security & the Wall (which is already under major construction)," Trump wrote. "I am prepared to veto, if necessary. The Southern Border is a National Security and Humanitarian Nightmare, but it can be easily fixed!"
After Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Wednesday announced support for the House-passed resolution to cancel Trump's national emergency declaration — which the president wants to use to pay for a border wall Congress has refused to fund — five Republicans have publicly declared they will vote in favor of the Democratic measure.
As of last week, GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine announced they would back the resolution, and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has conceded it would pass.
Should Trump veto the measure, it is unlikely that Congress would be able to overturn it.
Trump declared the national emergency weeks after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, lasting more than a month, which followed Congress' refusal to acquiesce to his demand for more than $5 billion in funding to build a massive wall along the southern border with Mexico. Trump used the emergency declaration in hopes of redirecting billions of federal dollars to build the wall without congressional approval.
"Republican Senators are overthinking tomorrow's vote on National Emergency," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "It is very simply Border Security/No Crime - Should not be thought of any other way. We have a MAJOR NATIONAL EMERGENCY at our Border and the People of our Country know it very well!"