"I think we might work a deal, and if we don't we might go that route," Trump told reporters during a bill signing in the Oval Office.  

The president said he has the "absolute right" to declare an emergency, even though some legal scholars and Democratic lawmakers say he does not. 

Trump added that his "threshold" for declaring a national emergency is if he cannot reach a deal with congressional Democrats, who have rejected his demand for $5.7 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The comments come one day after he argued to the nation in a televised addressed that a "humanitarian crisis" caused by drug trafficking and illegal immigration exists on the southern border and his proposed wall is the only thing that can stop it.