'There'll Be Barrier Protecting Southern Border & Trump Will See to It' – Expert

US President Donald Trump has delivered his second State of the Union address. Sputnik has discussed the speech with Elbert Lee Guillory, a former member of the Louisiana State Senate.

Sputnik: President Trump used the State of the Union speech to call for unity between the two parties. How likely are the Democrats now to cooperate with him?

Elbert Lee Guillory: I believe that he will move the needle five or ten percentage points; it will take a few days for it to filter throughout the American populace, but he was very presidential, he was very unifying, indicating that the two parties' victory is […] governing as two parties but not as one nation. We have to change that; so we should now govern as one nation instead of two parties. I think that those kinds of words will resonate throughout the country and the Democrats will see that they must come to the table and join in the government.

Sputnik: Donald Trump is being very firm on his border wall policy. What chances does he have in actually obtaining the funding for it? I mean, obviously, this is the key element which was the issue that led to the government shutdown; and, unfortunately, a lot of commentators said that he lost that particular fight with the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi. Do you think in the long term he is going to actually get funding or is funding something that's just not going to be given in to by the Democrats?

Elbert Lee Guillory: The money is there; the money is in unspent agencies, it's there. I think that he will either declare a national emergency or simply take the money from the military budget and go ahead and build it. He is going to build the wall, and I don't know whether it will be called a concrete wall, last night as he indicated. He is flexible on what you call it, but there will be a barrier that will protect our southern border and he will see to that.

Sputnik: Do you think that his particular border fence is a national requirement? Is it something that is urgently required for the United States now moving forward? We know the deadline for the funding of the wall is next week; how likely is Donald Trump to resort to declaring a national emergency? You mentioned it in your last answer; do you think he is really going to take that decision?

Elbert Lee Guillory: I think that he is closer to doing that than to doing another government shutdown. I don't believe that there will be a shutdown. I believe that he will find the money either in unspent money already budgeted or he'll go ahead and declare a national emergency. I've always supported the call for a national emergency.

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There is a major problem at the southern border; we do need to seal that border and make sure that illegal immigration simply ends. We cannot afford it; it's costing billions of dollars. Even in little states like Louisiana, the illegal immigration problem is costing us half a billion dollars every year; and we can't afford that.

Sputnik: I think that's understandable; obviously, Louisiana, being one of the southern states in the United States. I'm sure that you, as you've mentioned that, are feeling are feeling it very strongly. Are you saying that if Donald Trump did declare a national emergency, American citizens, especially in the southern states, would certainly be sympathetic towards him?

Elbert Lee Guillory: I believe so, yes. Certainly, in my home state of Louisiana, there would be widespread support for that. We cannot afford the impact of illegal immigration. He made a great point about it last night; he talked about the people who are the politicians who live behind walls and gates at their homes, but it's the working class people in America who bear the cruellest brunt of illegal immigration. Americans are going to see that and they are going to support the president, I believe.

Sputnik: We do know it's a split country; it was split in terms of the vote when President Trump came to power. And a lot of the upset in America we know is because of the fact that the two different elements of the population, the have and have nots, certainly got a different view of things. Obviously, the people you're alluding to feel that they've got an unjust cause at the end of the day. How is this going to affect the chance of President Trump's presidency ahead of the 2020 elections? Is he still going to retain that whole hardcore support that I've just been mentioning? Does he have a realistic chance to be re-elected if he goes for it?

Elbert Lee Guillory: He has a very good chance of being re-elected and let me tell you why. He laid out last night that 300,000 new jobs created, five million people are off food stamps and now working, 157 million Americans are working more than at any other time in American history; he's cut regulations, we are number one in oil producing in the world.

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Those things are measures of his success, and he laid out this is his success over the last two years; and he laid out a very optimistic next two years committing to the barrier, of course, ending unfair Chinese trade, rebuilding the American infrastructure, school choice for everyone. He is going to make America great again; he is going to make some great new changes in America.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of Elbert Lee Guillory and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.