The Military Can't Build Trump's Border Wall. Here's Why He Keeps Insisting It Can

[babylonsister]

http://time.com/5219475/donald-trump-pentagon-border-wall/

The Military Can't Build Trump's Border Wall. Here's Why He Keeps Insisting It Can


They couldn’t quite get him to understand it.

Just because Congress passed a spending bill doesn’t mean President Donald Trump could now treat the pile of taxpayers’ cash as a general fund to spend as he pleased on a huge and costly wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, aides explained to the President. Contrary to Trump’s experience as a real estate and marketing executive, this is not how the federal budget process works. The chatter on cable couldn’t trump Congress’ constitutional control over the budget.

But Trump wouldn’t hear it, according to two Administration officials. In Trump’s mind, Congress gave the money to the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis works for Trump, and Trump sees the wall as part of the United States’ defense. Ergo, he wants the Pentagon to build that wall. What was the point of being Commander-in-Chief — with a defense budget he boasts is “historic” — if Trump couldn’t make the military do his bidding?

White House aides told Trump that the budget he reluctantly endorsed wasn’t as flexible as budgets inside the Trump Organization. Congress explicitly forbade spending on a concrete barrier or in natural areas. Of the $1.6 billion allocated for border security — a far cry from the $25 billion Trump’s team sought as a starting point — most of it is for repairing existing fencing and conducting surveillance. When officials tried to explain to the President that the spending bill had no provisions for a military wall, Trump, in frustration, again blamed the filibuster for standing in his way, wrongly assuming fellow Republicans would go along with his desire to scrap it.

None of this got through, apparently, before Trump decamped last weekend for Florida. Trump sent a tweet on Saturday that read: “Build WALL through M!” (White House aides say the “M” in question was for Military, not Mexico.) “Military is rich again,” he tweeted.

snip//

With members of Congress gone for a spring break, many officials expect Trump to tire of the military-funding idea by the time the Senate returns on April 9. “Has he ever stuck with anything in a sustained way that long?” one Republican official asked. “We’ll have 20 other headlines between now and then.”

[underpants]

1. No the left side are the words this money is meant for

You have to read from left to right. You can't just look at the numbers.

Sounds like when Jim Gilmore was Governor of Virginia. I was told, by a Republican mind you, that Gilmore simply couldn't wrap his mind around a biennial budget and that "He was easily the dumbest person who ever served as Governor".

[Angry Dragon]

2. Have all porn stars donate their used condoms to build the wall, no one would want to cross that

wall

[dubyadiprecession]

3. Trump is going to have to build a wall around the whitehouse...

It will help keep his people from leaving him.