Trump privately presses for military to pay for border wall

[Jtbrig7390]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...all/ar-BBKMvlw

President Trump frequently said Mexico would pay for a wall along the southern border as he sought the presidency in 2016. Now, he is privately pushing the U.S. military to fund construction of his signature project.

Trump, who told advisers he was spurned in a large spending bill last week when lawmakers appropriated only $1.6 billion for the border wall, has begun suggesting that the Pentagon could fund the sprawling construction, citing a “national security” risk.

After floating the notion to several advisers last week, he told House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) that the military should pay for the wall, according to three people familiar with the meeting Wednesday in the White House residence. Ryan offered little reaction to the notion, these people said, but senior Capitol Hill officials later said it was an unlikely prospect.

The individuals spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about private discussions.

In another such interaction with senior aides last week, Trump noted that the Defense Department was getting so much money as part of the $1.3 trillion spending package that the Pentagon could surely afford the border wall, two White House officials said. The Pentagon received about $700 billion in the spending package, which Trump repeatedly lauded as “historic.”

Meanwhile, the $1.6 billion in the bill for some fencing and levees on the border not only fell far short of the $25 billion that Trump was seeking, but it came with tight restrictions on how the money can be spent.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflected a question about the military financing construction of the wall. “I can’t get into the specifics of that at this point, but I can tell you that the continuation of building the wall is ongoing and we’re going to continue moving forward in that process,” Sanders told reporters Tuesday.

“Build WALL through M!” Trump recently wrote on Twitter. He retweeted those words on Tuesday. Two advisers said that “M” stood for “military.”

It would be unlikely for the military to fund the wall, according to White House and Defense Department officials. The president has suggested to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that his department, instead of the Department of Homeland Security, could fund the construction, two Trump advisers said.

The Pentagon has plenty of money, but reprogramming it for a wall would require votes in Congress that the president does not seem to have. Taking money from the current 2018 budget for the wall would require an act of Congress, said a senior Pentagon official.

To find the money in the 2019 defense budget, Trump would have to submit a budget amendment that would still require 60 votes in the Senate, the official said.

Democrats in Congress would probably chafe at military spending going to the construction of a border wall, and military officials may also blanch, White House advisers said.

“First Mexico was supposed to pay for it, then U.S. taxpayers, and now our men and women in uniform? This would be a blatant misuse of military funds and tied up in court for years. Secretary Mattis ought not bother and instead use the money to help our troops, rather than advance the president’s political fantasies,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement to The Washington Post.

Trump has grown frustrated watching constant TV criticism of the spending deal he signed last week and is determined to find a new way to fund the wall, several advisers said, privately grousing that his political supporters could become disenchanted without progress. After a recent trip to see prototypes of the wall in California, Trump has grown more animated by the issue, advisers said.

The president’s comments raising the possibility of using Pentagon funds to build the wall came after the collapse of negotiations with Democrats to secure $25 billion in long-term wall funding in exchange for protections for young immigrants at risk for deportation because of Trump’s cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The White House offered three years of protections for DACA recipients, according to multiple congressional aides, but Democrats demanded protections for a larger group of “dreamers,” including those who never applied for or are ineligible for DACA. The negotiations fell apart before the $1.3 trillion spending bill was drafted and passed last week.

The urgency to strike a deal reflected the growing sense that the spending bill represented the last chance for the Trump administration to secure substantial wall funding, at least in his first term. Top Republicans believe it is all but certain that Democrats will gain House seats in November’s midterm elections — and perhaps take the majority — greatly enhancing their bargaining position in future spending negotiations.

Only $641 million is earmarked for new primary fencing in areas that currently have no barriers, and the money can be spent only on “operationally effective designs” that were already deployed as of last May. That means the prototype designs the Trump administration is exploring cannot be built.

Look at all this winning.

[Kasierith]

I think I would pay to see Skroe's face at the mere suggestion of his precious military spending omnibus going into paying for the wall.

(also fixed title typo)

[Masark]

I think I would pay to see Skroe's face at the mere suggestion of his precious military spending omnibus going into paying for the wall.

(also fixed title typo)

He's already addressed this in another thread and the military's response to this was "go pound sand".

[Dhrizzle]

Having the military build the wall would provide much needed employment whilst ensuring the U.S. sustains its key wall-building expertise for the future. Next they should build a wall along their Canadian border, then the west coast, then the east coast... then they can knock them down as soon as their politics stops being so disfunctionally insane.

[Breccia]

He's already addressed this in another thread and the military's response to this was "go pound sand traps".

Fixed that for you.

On topic: it's quite telling that Trump, somehow, thought he could assume his current role and have no criticism at all. The Toddler In Chief is upset, and lashing out because he's upset, that he's getting panned for caving on a campaign promise that had nearly no support (which he knew), cost way more than he said it would (which he knew), would face significant legal obstacles (which he probably didn't know, but should have before he made it a campaign promise), and yet used as a pillar, a cornerstone, of his platform.

He promised the impossible, he pushed it so hard that his rabid fanbase started cosplaying as The Wall --


"Not a Pink Floyd concert, you jackass."

-- and then, when he finally backed down from the impossible, seems somehow surprised and hurt that the people he conned, the people he betrayed, took offense to that. And, of course, anyone who didn't support him is laughing at him, openly mocking and deriding him, for being denied even the hope of his bigly YUGE fantasy that he tried to convince his voters could be real.

To use the quote of the fuckin' year, The Wall just got six feet deeper. But Trump's more upset at the criticism for how he handled it -- by folding like an Origami contortionist with a Jack-high hand -- than the loss itself. Somehow, he sees the criticism, of his betrayal, as the betrayal. He doesn't even acknowledge that he might have made an unpopular choice -- and he has a long history of proven, well, sociopathic behavior that only backs that up.

In what he thinks is righteous fury but is really a childish tantrum, he lashes out, bawling and screaming, and slaps the one group still in his corner: the military. Already saddled with the useless fucking parade for his own ego; already handed the order to deport veterans; already looking at a collapsing VA whose head under investigation, incompetent, and might be next to go; already ordered to remove transgenders despite their lack of bone spurs; and already facing Bolton's Iran War; he then wants to take $25 billion, over one-sixth of the increase of their budget they've been waiting sooooooooooo long for, and to use it, and their time, their resources, to make a useless fucking Wall to a country we're not at war with.

Because Trump's widdle feewings were hurt by the people he lied to, swindled, and turned on, criticizing him for lying to them, swindling them, and turning on them.

I'm not surprised the military would take a dim view on that.

[Wyrt]

Yes, have the military responsible for it.That way we can get it very behind schedule and way over budget. Brilliant.

[akris15]

The only way that wall could be built with Military Funding is through a working capital fund with a vendor who wins the contract and there is zero chance some purchasing vendor at DLA will approve such a contract...

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Yes, have the military responsible for it.That way we can get it very behind schedule and way over budget. Brilliant.

If America has to burn to support Trumps dreams than it deserves it.

[Breccia]

Hey, what happened to that reality show competition between the eight prototypes? Last I heard Trump was personally there two weeks ago and none of them have been voted off the island yet.

EDIT: Whoops I stand corrected. The last I heard was this Native American tribe saying they live in both Mexico and the USA and The Wall would split their living area. So, which half of the Tohono O’Odhams are the rapists?

Also, Trump said The Wall would cost $18 billion earlier this year. Now he's asking $25 billion. Remember in his campaign when he said it would be $4 billion? Back when he said he'd be the one building it?

"Oh, that was before he knew he only needed 1,000 miles, not 2,000."

That's a stupid argument, Voice In Me Head. That would make the price go down, not up. Also, he admitted that in February of last year so it's really funny how the price kept going up.

Now add to that, what @Wyrt just said.

[PACOX]

The military should say it no longer has enough personnel to work the wall after the transgender ban and need for increased readiness after the Bolton appointment.

[Breccia]

The military should say it no longer has enough personnel to work the wall after the transgender ban and need for increased readiness after the Bolton appointment.

And the parade! Don't forget the parade.

[Healing Rain]

It's a matter of national security so the military paying for it would make sense.

[Ghostpanther]

It's a matter of national security so the military paying for it would make sense.

The Army Corp of Engineers have built many large projects for the country before. Dams, bridges, etc. Trump will do ( and can only do ) whatever he is allowed to do by law to accomplish his goals. As just about all Presidents have did.

[Stormspellz]

It's a matter of national security so the military paying for it would make sense.

But its not, the wall will do nothing for our security, or illegal immigration.

[Sorshen]

It's a matter of national security so the military paying for it would make sense.

Riiiiight.

[Breccia]

But its not, the wall will do nothing for our security, or illegal immigration.

Um...he does know we're paying for it, right? The military doesn't get external funds.

Also, ha ha, not even Trump's rabid fanbase is saying Mexico will pay for it anymore.

[Grapemask]

See, he is keeping his promise that Mexico will pay for the wall. 93D chess. He deports the Mexicans that served in our military, then the military pays for the wall with the funds they saved by not having to give benefits to the Mexican troops.

(I fully expect to see this line of thought show up on r/T_D, if it hasn't already)

[kail]

That cut off sign is enough to see how blind and delusional his base can be.

[Stormspark]

I think these two objects describe what the military will say.

[Sky High]

hey man, he has to put some sort of score on the board. and no if you Trumpkins say that tax bill is a win then I'm sorry, but you're dumb.