Posted on 12/19/2018 10:53:56 AM PST by 11th_VA
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP reasserted a directive Wednesday – that the Pentagon quietly dismissed last week – that the military will assume responsibility for building a wall along the southern U.S. border.
Trump's announcement follows reports that the president withdrew his demand for $5 billion in funding for a border wall amid a lack of support in Congress as lawmakers seek a funding compromise that will keep the government open. Trump also repeated claims that a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico will generate revenue that will fulfill his campaign promise of forcing America's southern neighbor to pay for the wall.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Tuesday that the administration was looking for other elements of the government that could fulfill one of the president's signature campaign promises.
"Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for NAFTA!" Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement that he has rebranded as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. "Far more money coming to the U.S. Because of the tremendous dangers at the Border, including large scale criminal and drug inflow, the United States Military will build the Wall!"
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Army headquarters currently overseeing domestic operations along the U.S. border deferred questions to the Pentagon, which did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
But on Dec. 11, following Trump's initial claims that he would direct the military to begin wall construction, Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis said, "to date, there is no plan to build sections of the wall."
"However, Congress has provided options under Title 10 U.S. Code that could permit the Defense Department to fund border barrier projects, such as in support of counter drug operations or national emergencies."
The statement from a department that regularly touts its ability to respond to directives immediately was seen as a way to push back on an unplanned demand from the president without openly contradicting the commander in chief.
Trump has hinted at the idea of using the military to pay for or build the wall, including in March. Federal agencies, however, cannot reappropriate funds without congressional approval. And top legislators on Capitol Hill have questioned whether Trump's authority to deploy the military could extend to building a permanent barrier.
[ "The real issue here is the money. There is nothing in the DOD budget that I could recognize as authorizing them to build a wall. I don't know where they get the authority," Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said, according to The Washington Examiner.
Trump has previously used his executive power to deploy the military in support of domestic border issues without an apparent funding mechanism. In October, shortly before the November midterm elections, he announced that thousands of U.S. service members would temporarily deploy to border crossings in Texas, Arizona and California and unguarded portions of the southern border to help build fencing and wire barriers, and provide logistic support to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Trump claimed this was a necessary response to a caravan of hundreds of migrants approaching the U.S. from Central America.
Top military officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, pushed back at the time on Trump's assertions that the military would serve as a police force, saying its responsibilities were limited to logistics and support roles.
That deployment is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, which will likely come out of the Defense Department's operating budget.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
23 months and counting
The Corps of Engineers is in the business of letting and administering construction contracts. The Corps of Engineers will not use troops to do the construction.
So far as the COE is concerned, administering a contract for a border wall is not a lot different than a contract for a river lock or dredging a harbor
that the Pentagon quietly dismissed last week
Open boarders is now about as important to the dems as unfettered abortion.
Don’t trust the DOD. The swamp has reached that side of the Potomac. Trust no one in the Federal government. No one.
“Trust no one in the Federal government. No one.”
No one.
then do it.....
Trump appointed three generals to top positions in his admin. McMaster, Kelley, and Mattis. It seems that none of them actually support him. Two are gone but Mattis is ignoring the Commander in Cheif? I thought these guys were rock solid but I now think stars on your shoulder should probably be considered a marker for "deep state hack".
He obviously doesn’t know that our military is only for protecting “other” countries.
I give up all hope politically and the nation is finished in the long term but I am still glad Trump is President because now we all are miserable together.
Just like he “reasserted a directive” 3-4 months ago to release the FISA unredacted as well as the texts between Strozk and Page. Well we see what became of that. The FISA is still yet to be seen and the texts have mysteriously vanished
Just spiraling to the inevitable collapse of the country or full DEM takeover that few predicted just two years ago.
I guess Trump got tired of winning...
Patriots are from Mars and the feds are from Venus.
“that the Pentagon quietly dismissed last week”
If Trump is in fact determined to follow through, they’ll get a lesson real fast on who the boss is.
I may be nuts, but I don’t see anything wrong with this. One of the problems with being in the military now is that they don’t have any projects - aka, wars - rght now and it all gets into the self-maintenance of rearguard officers. At least this would give them a project to work on and something for which they will be accountable.
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