It appears that Trump’s tweet on “M” building the wall is a suggestion that the military should pay for and build it, according to a new report out today. Trump has also been speaking with advisors privately about making it happen:
WASHINGTON POST – 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 only appropriated $1.6 billion for the border wall, has begun suggesting the Pentagon could fund the sprawling construction, citing a “national security” risk.
After floating the notion to several advisers last week, he told Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) that the military should pay for the wall in a meeting last Wednesday in the White House residence, according to three people familiar with the meeting. 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 Department of Defense 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 as part of the spending package, which Trump repeatedly lauded as “historic.”
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
“Build WALL through M!” Trump recently wrote on Twitter. Two advisers said that “M” stood for military.
Some officials are saying this couldn’t happen:
It would be unlikely for the military to fund the wall, according to White House and Defense Department officials. The president has suggested to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis that the department could fund the construction instead of the Department of Homeland Security, two Trump advisers said.
The Pentagon has plenty of money, but reprogramming it for a wall would require votes in Congress that the president doesn’t 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.
Aside from this, Chucky Schumer said if Trump were to make the military to pay for his ‘political fantasy’, that it would be tied up in the courts for years. I’m sure that would be true.
I get that Trump feels like he’s in a tough position, with Congress only granting him 1 billion out of the 25 billion needed to build the wall. But Congress needs to do what they said they would do last year and grant him the money.
At the end of the day I don’t care if it’s a wall or not, I just want a secure border. And quite frankly, if there was a legal way for the Pentagon to pay for and build the wall, I’d be all for it.