Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter calledPresident Trump lazy and incompetent and a lunatic and warned that he could face a Republican primary challenger from the right if he doesnt fulfill his promise to build a wall across the Mexican border.
We put this lunatic in the White House for one reason, said Coulter in an interview on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery.
Coulter even suggested a possible terrific primary challenger to the president Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who recently chargedthat Democratic leaders in Congress have American blood on their hands for refusing to fund the wall.
Brookss office did not respond to a request for comment.
Coulters comments are her latest attempt to pressure the president to stand by his promise to build the border wall, a campaign she hasconducted largely on Twitter, where she called Trump a wimp for caving in to Democrats by allowing the government to reopen after a five-week shutdown. Coulter, with 2.14 million Twitter followers (compared to Trumps 57.9 million) appears to wield an outsized influence over the White House, and she wasnt shy in discussing it in her interview with Yahoo News Dan Klaidman and Michael Isikoff.
Thats none of your beeswax, she said, when asked if she is still talking to the president despite their seemingly frayed relationship.
In an interview last week, Trump remarked of Coulter, I hear shes become very hostile. Maybe I didnt return her phone call or something. Databases of Trumps tweets indicate he hasnt mentioned Coulter since August 2016, when he retweeted her praise of his campaign speech on immigration as the most magnificent speech ever given.
Asked about reports that Trump had unfollowed her on Twitter after one of her recent attacks, Coulter laughed and insisted: Hes still reading me. I can tell. Well, somebodys reading me. Theyre all reading me over there.
As if to underscore the point, Coulter repeatedly pressed an argument that Trump himself seemed to be making in a New York Times interview the same day: that the president doesnt need a congressional appropriation to build the wall, nor does he need to declare a national emergency.
Ann Coulter and the border wall (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Eric Gay/AP)
Instead, Coulter claimed, he can simply use his inherent authority as commander in chief to direct that the wall be built in order to protect United States citizens and defendthe country from illegal immigrants.
He doesnt need to declare an emergency to build the wall, Coulter said, claiming the president can simply order the Department of Defense and Homeland Security to begin construction.
I think Trump is gonna do that, Coulter said. I think hes finally going to pull that pocket Constitution out of his lapel pocket and [say], Oh my gosh, Im the president. This is great.
Coulter did not have an answer when challenged to name a constitutional scholar who would support such an extreme view of unilateral executive power. Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe ridiculed the idea in a Twitter response to Coulters comments Friday morning.
No! Inherent presidential power as C-in-Chief dsnt give Trump the power of the purse. We fought a revolution to end such power, he wrote.
But Trump seemed to be entertaining the idea in his interview with the New York Times the same day. Saying that his efforts to negotiate with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats were a waste of money and time and energy, the president insisted he will simply proceed with his plans for a wall anyway.
Ill continue to build the wall and well get the wall finished, Trump said. Now whether or not I declare a national emergency that youll see.
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Ann Coulter says Trump could be challenged from right in 2020