TRUMP: PENTAGON WILL BUILD WALL
TRUMP: PENTAGON WILL BUILD WALL
Trump says he could use the MILITARY to build his wall if Congress won't fund it through Homeland Security's budget - and he won't rule out another government shutdown to get his way
- DailyMail.com asked the president on Air Force One if he was considering using the Army Corps of Engineers to build his border wall
- Congress has been stingy with a Homeland Security budget for the project, providing barely $3 billion and leaving another $25 billion unfunded
- Pentagon officials say the Corps of Engineers is suited to perform the work and Trump has boasted about budget increases he has won for the Pentagon
- Trump says: 'We have two options: We have military, we have homeland security'
- He also said he won't take a government shutdown off the table if Democrats on Capitol Hill keep playing hardball because of immigration politics
- He believes a shutdown would be strategically and politically smart
- But many Republican lawmakers are counseling patience because they fear being blamed for a shutdown in the final month of re-elecion campaigns
By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor For Dailymail.com In Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Published: 19:36 EDT, 7 September 2018 | Updated: 23:51 EDT, 7 September 2018
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President Donald Trump said Friday that he's considering using military resources to finish construction of his long-promised border wall instead of relying on Congress to fund the project through the Homeland Security Department's budget.
He also wouldn't eliminate the possibility of a government shutdown if Democrats continue to confound his efforts to appropriate money for the project on the U.S.-Mexico border.
'We have two options,' he told DailyMail.com aboard Air Force One as he flew from Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota. 'We have military, we have homeland security.'
He was asked specifically about using the Army Corps of Engineers as a taxpayer-funded construction crew.
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President Donald Trump said Friday that he's considering using military resources to finish construction of his long-promised border wall, as she spoke to the press on Air Force One, above on Friday
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'We have two options,' he told DailyMail.com aboard Air Force One as he flew from Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota. 'We have military, we have homeland security'
Trump said he would prefer to fund the ambitious construction 'the old-fashioned way – get it from Congress – but I have other options if I have to.'
He's seeking about $25 billion.
The possibility of diverting Pentagon funding and assets to build a border wall is a hole card the president is holding but has never directly acknowledged before.
Two Defense Department officials told DailyMail.com in August that the Army Corps of Engineers could take on the task.
'They build levees that hold back massive walls of water,' one said of the agency. 'They can build one to hold back drugs and human traffickers.'
The White House appears headed for another confrontation with Congress over an increase in funding for the project after securing $1.6 billion for 2007 and the same amount for this year.
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A Homeland Security border patrol vehicle monitors the border area where prototypes of US President Donald Trump's proposed border wall are standing in this November 2017 file photo
A senior White House official said Thursday that the money was 'basically a down-payment on the thing'.
The possibility looms that the president will refuse to sign the next federal budget, due September 30, if lawmakers don't go along with more installments. That would trigger a government shutdown.
'If it were up – I don't want to say "up to me," because it is up to me – I would do it,' he said aboard Air Force One, 'because I think it's a great political issue.'
But he said some Republicans in Congress, facing tough re-election fights, have counseled more patience.
'They have races, they're doing well, they're up,' Trump explained. 'And you know, the way they look at it: might be good, might be bad.'
Typically the party in power, in this case the GOP, would shoulder most of the blame for interrupted government services. National security and military operations wouldn't be affected.
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Trump said he would prefer to fund the ambitious construction 'the old-fashioned way – get it from Congress – but I have other options if I have to.' he is pictured above speaking with the press on Air Force One on Friday
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The Army Corps of Engineers are seen above in this file photo repairing damage to the middle breakwater caused by Hurricane Marie in Long Beach, California, in January 2015
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Thursday night in Billings, he told a Fox News Channel interviewer that 'we need Republicans elected in the midterms'.
'We are getting the wall done. But I've had so many people, good people, great people – they would rather not do [it] before [November]. They'd rather do it right after the election.'
Trump said he still wants to persuade Congress – preferably one reinforced with more Republicans – to write the checks he wants.
'Politically speaking, I'd rather get it through Congress. If we don't, I'm looking at that option very seriously,' he said aboard Air Force One on Friday, referring to the Defense Department.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Friday evening the president assured a crowd of about 600 supporters that 'we're building the wall!'
'It works so easily!' he said. 'They say walls don't work? Tell Israel.'
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Border Patrol agents confer next to the U.S-Mexico border fence, as seen from a helicopter on May 11, 2017 in San Diego, California
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