--- title: Stacey Abrams Had A Plan for Trump's National Emergency description: Stacey Abrams already had a plan ready for Donald Trump declaring a national emergency, which she revealed on 'Late Night with Seth Meyers.' canonical: https://time.com/5530479/stacey-abrams-trump-national-emergency/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-15T16:52:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:22:47.236Z og:title: Stacey Abrams Already Planned for Trump's National Emergency og:description: "More than anything, it's not real" og:url: https://time.com/5530479/stacey-abrams-trump-national-emergency/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt61716ba4f805f8c6/6989453a16d884cea4c34a1c/stacey-abrams-seth-meyers-trump-national-emergency.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Late Night with Seth Meyers - Season 6 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stacey Abrams Already Planned for Trump's National Emergency twitter:description: "More than anything, it's not real" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt61716ba4f805f8c6/6989453a16d884cea4c34a1c/stacey-abrams-seth-meyers-trump-national-emergency.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stacey Abrams Already Had a Plan for Trump Declaring a National Emergency > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ac89af89-756c-43ac-8860-6de04ef20067&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Declares Emergency to Get Billions for Border Wall [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Declares Emergency to Get Billions for Border Wall](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xgPbyy8O.m3u8) (0:39)  _Published 2019-02-15. President Trump has declared a national emergency that he says will allow him to access $8 billion to build his border wall without approval from Congress._  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 15, 2019 4:52 PM UTC President Trump has declared a national emergency that he says will allow him to access $8 billion to build his border wall without approval from Congress.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 15, 2019 4:52 PM UTC [Donald Trump](http://time.com/5530086/donald-trump-national-emergency-risks/) confirmed on Friday morning that he would be [declaring a national emergency](https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/15/politics/donald-trump-border-national-emergency-immigration/index.html) to secure funding to build a Southern border wall; his actions probably didn’t surprise [Stacey Abrams](http://time.com/5349541/stacey-abrams-georgia/), who told Seth Meyers on Thursday night what the plan of action should be if Trump declared a state of emergency. During an appearance on _Late Night with Seth Meyers,_ Abrams, who delivered [the 2019 Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union Address](http://time.com/5515760/stacey-abrams-state-of-the-union/), shared what she thought would be the best solution if Trump declared a national emergency. “More than anything, it’s not real,” she said. “There is no emergency. It is not national. It is in his head.” Later on in the segment she continued: “What he’s looking forward to and what I think we will give him is that we will have a histrionic fit about this and then we’ll realize it’s just like everything else he hasn’t done. Why are we reacting to yet another untruth?” Meyers then asked if the best way to address this would be to ignore Trump, which Abrams corrected swiftly and with a little humor. “Oh, we should sue him, of course,” she said. “Absolutely. Because left unchecked, he will declare a national emergency because tanning beds are disappearing from the shelves.” She then addressed the issue more seriously. “I do think there is necessary response, but it doesn’t have to be public and it doesn’t have to be constant,” she said. “We validate his behavior when we treat it as serious. What we should treat it as is fraudulent and fraught with egotism.” Watch the full clip below. ## Transcript [00:00] So we're going to be signing today [00:06] and registering national emergency. I [00:10] could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn't [00:13] need to do this, but I'd rather do it much faster. And [00:17] I don't have to do it for the election, I've already done [00:19] a lot of wall. For the election, 2020. And [00:23] the only reason we're up here talking about this is [00:25] because of the election. Because they wanna try and [00:28] win an election which it looks like they're not gonna be [00:31] able to do. And this one of the ways they think they [00:35] can possibly win, is by obstruction. 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