--- 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: 2026-04-13T07:57:31.542Z 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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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 15, 2019 4:52 PM UTC  LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS -- Episode 800 -- Pictured: (l-r) Politician Stacey Abrams during an interview with host Seth Meyers on February 14, 2019 -- (Photo by: Lloyd Bishop/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS -- Episode 800 -- Pictured: (l-r) Politician Stacey Abrams during an interview with host Seth Meyers on February 14, 2019 -- (Photo by: Lloyd Bishop/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5530479/stacey-abrams-trump-national-emergency/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5530479/stacey-abrams-trump-national-emergency/"},"headline":"Stacey Abrams Already Had a Plan for Trump Declaring a National Emergency","datePublished":"2019-02-15T16:52:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:31.542Z","description":"\"More than anything, it's not real\"","url":"https://time.com/5530479/stacey-abrams-trump-national-emergency/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night Television","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"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=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"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=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Late Night with Seth Meyers - Season 6","caption":"Late Night with Seth Meyers - Season 6","creditText":"NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5530479/stacey-abrams-trump-national-emergency/","name":"Stacey Abrams Already Had a Plan for Trump Declaring a National Emergency"}}]}] ```