Whoa: Trump Plans to Use Another $7.2 Billion in Pentagon Funds for Wall
In continued defiance of Democrats who have refused to give the administration proper funding for his border wall, President Trump is reportedly planning to divert another $7.2 billion in funding from the Defense Department towards construction this year.
The plans, revealed by internal administration planning figures obtained by the Washington Post, show that Trump is emboldened by recent court decisions allowing him to go forward with using Pentagon funds to build the wall. The money, according to the plans, would come from military construction projects. If the diversion is successful, it would allow Trump to build nearly 900 miles of new fencing by spring 2022.
From the Post:
The Pentagon funds would be extracted, for the second year in a row, from military construction projects and counternarcotics funding. According to the plans, the funding would give the government enough money to complete about 885 miles of new fencing by spring 2022, far more than the 509 miles the administration has slated for the U.S. border with Mexico.
Trump took $2.5 billion from military counterdrug programs for border barrier construction in 2019, but this year his administration is planning to take significantly more — $3.5 billion. Trump administration officials also are planning to take $3.7 billion in military construction funding, slightly more than the $3.6 billion diverted in 2019.
The move would bring the total amount of federal funds allocated to border fencing to $18.4 billion under Trump, who made the border barrier a priority during his campaign for the presidency in 2016. He also pledged to make Mexico pay for the barrier, delighting crowds at his rallies.
The Trump administration has completed 101 miles of new barriers so far, according to the latest figures, far less than the 450 miles the president has promised to erect by the end of the year. But construction along the border — largely on land the federal government already owns — has been continuing even as legal challenges have aimed to disrupt it.
Well, this is guaranteed to send leftists into a brand new tizzy. There are a lot of easy ways to trigger the Democrats, but one surefire way is to mention anything having to do with building the wall. They see any reasonable enforcement of our nation’s border laws as a defense of white supremacy and the ultimate act of racism. It is 90% of why they hate Donald Trump and his supporters to begin with. When they realize that their precious Democratic majority in the House is doing – and indeed, can do – nothing to stop him from shoving construction into high gear, they’ll be fit to be tied.
Well, they already are, but you know what we mean.