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.
Good grief..what a depressing thread of posters!
Please cite your source.
Trumps problem is that he announces stuff then never follows through.
You can’t blame folks for not believing what he says.
Of course I’ll have to vote for Trump but he’s self destructing at the moment. He’s mirroring Arnold S in California. He thinks he has to work with the new Congress. He just totally lost all credibility to the democrats
He needs a Secretary of Defense who will carry out his orders and not countermand the orders he disagrees with.
They were all Obama Generals, a fatal flaw and massive Trump mistake to bring them in so close.
First, it was Mexico will pay for the wall.
Then the government would fund it.
Now the military will build it.
Trump has always kicked the can down the road.
Maybe Mulehead has him spooked.
Maybe the deep state has reigned him in.
He has done some great things for this country.
And made some fantastic appointments.
Who knows what the future holds.
However, if Trump can’t get it done, it will never
be done.
And that will lead to large depression in the GOP base.
After Trump, it may be a long no time before another
GOP President is elected.
...amid a lack of support in Congress.
What a bunch of spineless, gutless, feckless pukes. Pissonthemall.
What part of Commander in Chief do these dipsticks not understand?
Cue the Ann Coulter tweet about how the wall hasn’t been built yet.
If the wall doesn’t get built, Trump can kiss a second term goodby
He will become “One Bump Trump.”
Yesterday DONALD”S State Department is giving Ten Billion to corrupt Mexican & Central American Jefes. This s Insulting!
Wonderful.....thanks!
Trump won a majority of CD's in 2016. Trump should have played hardball with Paul Ryan from day one.
But instead he made nice with "Paul".
Clapping! Good post!
I read “maneuver enhancement” as another term for “mobility.” A wall though is textbook “countermobility.”
“Press Camp Headquarters?” My hope is that it’s another term for “Mainstream Media Prison!”
Do think that Trump will lose every GOP state primary, or the general election to the democrat?
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