While the press reported on March 27 that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, seeks to use Pentagon resources to finance the construction of the border wall, the White House said it continues to analyze options for Mexico to take charge of the bill, despite the fact that the continuous refusal of the Mexican government, even to put the issue on the table – which twice impeded a possible visit of Enrique Peña Nieto to Washington.
“He still has plans to look at potential ways for Mexico to pay the wall,” said presidential spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, without giving further details. So far, all efforts have been unsuccessful and Trump has had to settle for a first funding from federal budgets, although in figures much lower than intended.
The few funds granted by Congress, almost 1.6 billion dollars until September, of which only 641 million are for a new wall in the first line, are far from the 25 billion needed to complete the project, and president Trump would be looking for all possible alternatives to get more resources.
“He still has plans to look at potential ways to make Mexico pay for the wall,” said presidential spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. (Photo: Pixabay)
One of the options for which he would be insisting on is, according to a report by The Washington Post, the redirection of funds from the Department of Defense for the construction of the border barrier.
Trump believes he can claim “national security” reasons, and has privately suggested leaders of his party, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, to discuss the possibility. But in Congress, the option is seen as almost discarded beforehand.
Trump hinted at the idea in a tweet last weekend. “(…) “our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!!” He wrote, M as an abbreviation for “military”.
Trump’s wish looks more and more improbable. Since he needs the authorization of Congress to mobilize funds, and the wall issue is not very “popular” among legislators these days, especially Democrats.
“First Mexico had to pay for it, then the American taxpayers, and now our military? It would be a blatant abuse of military funds,” Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer stated to the Washington Post.
Source: eluniversal.com.mx