Thread: Trump sensitive to criticism about so-far failed border wall promise

Trump sensitive to criticism about so-far failed border wall promise

By Kaitlan Collins, CNN
Updated 4:56 PM ET, Wed December 19, 2018

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump has become increasingly sensitive to criticism that he's backing off his signature promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, three sources familiar with his concern tell CNN, as aides fear the administration's chances for securing funding for it have sunset.

GOP lawmakers and Trump are set to OK a short-term funding measure to avert a year-end government shutdown and Democrats will assume control of the House in 2019, virtually assuring no additional border wall funding.

Trump's anxiety about fulfilling his top campaign goal comes at the end of months of bitter debate inside the West Wing over how to fund the border wall between those seen as ideologues and those who consider themselves pragmatists.

White House officials were in a meeting discussing border security last August when a sudden outburst from aide Stephen Miller silenced the room. The President's legislative affairs director, Shahira Knight, was in the middle of arguing that instead of pushing for the border fight so close to the midterm elections, the White House should hold off until after November when they would be in stronger position to fight over funding.

Miller, the immigration hardliner at the table, cut her off mid-sentence. According to two people in the room, he shot back with a list of reasons why the administration would almost certainly be in a weaker position after the elections because Republicans were guaranteed to lose multiple seats and possibly the entire House, making building the wall all but impossible.

Knight, a former aide to ex-White House economic adviser Gary Cohn with an in-depth policy knowledge, went quiet. An official described it as an "evisceration."

The exchange encapsulates how the President's aides have intensely disagreed on the best way to accomplish his aims, including the border wall, and whether some of his goals are worth the fight.

The President launched his 2016 presidential campaign on immigration, tapping into a rock solid base of support that catapulted him into the White House. He has relied on immigration fears -- and promises of security -- during campaigning, leaning heavily on the issue leading up to the midterm elections. Though some political observers in Washington scoffed at his promise to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, his base fully supported it. But recent events have shown that the President could be facing a major defeat on his signature promise, leading him to lash out.

Trump postponed the summer fight over the border wall when he signed a short-term spending bill in September, but the issue has resurfaced and the same disagreements that were laid bare in that August meeting still exist. The prospect of funding the wall this time around grew dim when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday he will introduce a continuing resolution, a deal that will fund the government through February 8 but deny the President his wall funding.

In a radio interview Wednesday, Ann Coulter, a conservative who has criticized the lack progress on the wall, declared she won't vote for Trump in 2020 if the wall isn't built.

"They're about to have a country where no Republican will ever be elected president again," Coulter told the station WMAL. "Trump will just have been a joke presidency who scammed the American people, amused the populists for a while, but he'll have no legacy whatsoever."

It remains to be seen if his supporters will chalk this up as a loss. Trump has continued to pledge he will get his "big, beautiful wall."

Despite aides signaling an impending concession on the border wall, the President outwardly insisted Wednesday that the wall will be built "one way or the other."

"Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for NAFTA! 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!" he tweeted.

And Trump has publicly embraced the idea of shutting down the government if he doesn't get funding for the border wall, declaring in front of cameras in the Oval Office that he would be "proud" to do so.

White House officials have been hesitant to guarantee the President would sign the measure McConnell proposed Wednesday, but aides have signaled a softening in their position this week.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/polit...ing/index.html

Yes, this is a good plan for the wall construction. Plus when more of it is built by the military and these areas where the new and improved steel wall is constructed in these high traffic corridors, border crossings should start dropping like a rock which will prove they work, America will have been served, a problem solved or curbed substantially and the DemoQuacks won't get any credit for it at all. Neither will a lot of others. Just Trump. All Trump All The Time.

I love this plan.

"Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for NAFTA! 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!" he tweeted.

What a load of rubbish! Whether NAFTA2 is as successful as Trump promises remains to be seen. Moreover, any money made has absolutely nothing to do with the border wall because any funding for a wall has to be approved by the U.S. Congress ..... it has nothing to do with NAFTA2.

As for the military building a wall. That's not going to happen either. The military is only participating in fence maintenance, not border wall building. Trump currently has no authorization or money to build a wall.

Bottom line, there is no plan at this time and I don't foresee one. Trump needs to refuse to sign the CR and fight for the border wall funding now!

It's time to quit sugar coating everything and time to wake up to the reality of what's really going on.

I don't believe you. I believe the Pentagon on this one.

Pentagon Says DOD Could Fund Border Projects, After Trump Suggests Military Could Build the Wall

Joel Pollak / Breitbart News
12 Dec 2018

The Pentagon said Tuesday that there is no current plan for the military to build sections of the border wall, but suggested that the law would allow the Defense Department to fund doing so in some cases.

“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 Department of Defense to fund border barrier projects, such as in support of counter drug operations or national emergencies,” Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis said.

The Pentagon statement came after President Trump on Tuesday morning said the military could build remaining sections of a border wall.

“People do not yet realize how much of the Wall, including really effective renovation, has already been built. If the Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country, the Military will build the remaining sections of the Wall. They know how important it is!” he tweeted Tuesday.

Trump later on Tuesday called the border crisis a “national emergency” during a meeting with incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), and evoked drug control.

“We’re going to see. Look, we have to have the wall. This isn’t a question; this is a national emergency. Drugs are pouring into our country. People with tremendous medical difficulty and medical problems are pouring in, and in many — in many cases, it’s contagious. They’re pouring into our country. We have to have border security. We have to have a wall as part of border security,” he said.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters Tuesday that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle would try to stop Trump from using the military to build the wall, according to the Washington Examiner.

Smith doesn’t think there is wall funding in Trump’s $750B defense budget top line, but if so lawmakers would ‘freak out’ and move to stop it.

— Travis J. Tritten (@Travis_Tritten) December 12, 2018

However, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, left open the possibility of having the military build the wall, according to Bloomberg:

.@JimInhofe says he doesn’t expect the U.S. military to build the border wall. Much will also depend on how the president makes the request; any projects under mil construction have to be authorized but could be asked differently. Inhofe has his own border bill as alternative

— Roxana Tiron (@rtiron) December 11, 2018

Inhofe, however, has been advocating for his own border funding bill.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News last week, Inhofe said his bill would fully fund the border wall by cutting off illegal aliens’ access to welfare benefits and tax credits.

The bill would stipulate that only Americans or legal immigrants with work-authorized Social Security numbers can claim child tax credits, earned income tax credits, and other tax credits.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...rier-military/

THEN WHY DID NOT TRUMP USE THIS "DOD" OPTION ON DAY ONE????

SAME WITH DACA...HERE WE ARE TWO YEARS LATER WITH THE "DACA LOVE".

WE DO NOT LOVE DACA, WE DO NOT LIKE DACA...WE LOATHE DACA AND WANT THEM OFF OUR SOIL. THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY TOO, WHETHER THEY CAME 30 YEARS AGO OR 30 SECONDS AGO.

NO AMNESTY #8

NO FREE PASS...GET THEM OUT AND GET IN LINE LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE PLANET!

"suggested" ..... "could" .... yada-yada-yada. There is no plan.

Originally Posted by Beezer

THEN WHY DID NOT TRUMP USE THIS "DOD" OPTION ON DAY ONE????

SAME WITH DACA...HERE WE ARE TWO YEARS LATER WITH THE "DACA LOVE".

WE DO NOT LOVE DACA, WE DO NOT LIKE DACA...WE LOATHE DACA AND WANT THEM OFF OUR SOIL. THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY TOO, WHETHER THEY CAME 30 YEARS AGO OR 30 SECONDS AGO.

NO AMNESTY #8

NO FREE PASS...GET THEM OUT AND GET IN LINE LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE PLANET!

Because he was fighting for DOD money to upgrade the military I imagine and expected Congress to fund the wall through normal appropriations. Isn't that what you expected Congress to do? Isn't that what everyone here is demanding be done, believes it can be done? I don't see the votes, but maybe you all have better eyesight than I do.

Send them to ALL the countries who signed the U.N. Migration Pact.


Print the list of countries in several languages and air drop flyers all over Mexico and Central America.

Adios, bon voyage!

They have SEVERAL countries to go dump themselves on. Pack your bags and go...they will welcome you.

You are not welcome here anymore. We are full up and fed up.

Bye bye, so long, see ya later alligator!!!

I think somebody could get through that bollard type wall. All they would have to do is figure out how to spread two of them apart enough to slip people through: ramming the bollards, jacking them apart, cutting one out with a torch.

The bollards should be filled with concrete and some rebar----would help quite a lot.

The modern surveillance methods would be a better investment IMO. I had posted an article last spring about a military grade interception method---it apparently worked quite well. What they really need is a few more top level personnel to tackle this problem efficiently. The DHS has a whole lot more responsibilities on its plate besides border security. They probably should have a border security task force---and then they have to defeat these ACLU lawsuits also---which are willfully wreaking havoc with our sovereignty.

Originally Posted by Judy

I don't believe you. I believe the Pentagon on this one.

Pentagon Says DOD Could Fund Border Projects, After Trump Suggests Military Could Build the Wall

You fall for this Could and run with it, as if is happening, today.

Yes, I believe they could, just like I believe they can guard and defend out border, but we saw exactly how that didn't happen.

Enough of the could do to fool the citizens.