Tag: border wall

White House: Trump Willing to Use Other Funds for Wall to Get Deal

Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

White House would go along with deal as long as it can use funding from other sources to get closer to $5 billion

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders seemed to endorse a potential spending deal that would include all of the remaining appropriations, including a Senate Homeland Homeland Security bill with $1.6 billion in wall-related funding.

But as usual, there was a catch — President Donald Trump might insist on flexibility to use other funds already identified to get closer to his desired $5 billion.

“We have other ways to get to that $5 billion, that we will work with Congress if they will make sure that we get a bill passed that provides not just the funding for the wall, but there’s a piece of legislation that’s been pushed around that Democrats actually voted 26-5 out of committee, that provides 26, roughly $26 billion in border security, including $1.6 billion for the wall,” Sanders said on Fox News. “That’s something that we would be able to support as long as we can couple that with other funding resources that would help us get to the $5 billion.”

View the complete December 18 article by Niels Lesniewski on The Roll Call website here.

Politically Wounded Trump Complicates Border Talks With Pelosi, Schumer

President Donald Trump arrives back at the White House on Friday evening without taking reporters’ questions. Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty Images file photo

‘When he feels challenged … he pulls back to his base’

Another wild weekend — with federal prosecutors appearing to implicate Donald Trump in a pair of federal crimes and his second chief of staff leaving soon — has only complicated the president’s coming talks with Democratic leaders to avert a partial government shutdown over the holidays.

Trump is scheduled to meet in the Oval Office on Tuesday morning with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer less than two weeks before a deadline to pass legislation to keep the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies funded and open beyond 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 21.

White House officials on Monday said Trump wants to have a back-and-forth with the Democratic leaders rather than just expressing his demands in a mostly one-way conversation.

Trump ties Republican midterm strategy to immigration, claims Mexico will pay for border wall

The following article by Seung Min Kim and Anne Gearan was posted on the Washington Post website May 30, 2018:

At a rally in Nashville on May 29, President Trump called Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen a “total tool” of “MS-13 lover Nancy Pelosi.” (The Washington Post)

NASHVILLE — President Trump insisted anew on Tuesday that Mexico will pay for his proposed border wall and “enjoy it” as he tied Republican success in the November midterm elections to a continued focus on illegal immigration and border security.

Democrats are “bad at everything, but they’re good at sticking together” in Congress, Trump said as he campaigned for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). Continue reading “Trump ties Republican midterm strategy to immigration, claims Mexico will pay for border wall”

Trump waives dozens of environmental rules to speed up construction of border wall

The following article by Jacqueline Thomsen was posted on the Hill website January 22, 2018:

© Getty Images

The Trump administration is waiving dozens of environmental regulations to speed up construction of President Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a notice published in the Federal Register Monday that she was waiving the rules to accelerate construction on part of the wall in New Mexico. Continue reading “Trump waives dozens of environmental rules to speed up construction of border wall”

Trump pushes back on chief of staff claims that border wall pledges ‘uninformed’

The following article by Ed O’Keefe was posted on the Washington Post website January 18, 2018:

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly arrives at the Capitol on Wednesday for a meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. (Susan Walsh/AP)

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly told Democratic lawmakers Wednesday that some of the hard-line immigration policies President Trump advocated during the campaign were “uninformed,” that the United States will never construct a wall along its entire southern border and that Mexico will never pay for it, according to people familiar with the meeting.

The comments were out of sync with remarks by Trump, who in recent days has reiterated his desire to build a border wall that would be funded by Mexico “indirectly through NAFTA.”

Trump amplified this stance Thursday in back-to-back tweets that called the North American Free Trade Agreement “a bad joke” and asserted that reworked trade deals with Mexico would somehow pay for the wall “directly or indirectly.” Continue reading “Trump pushes back on chief of staff claims that border wall pledges ‘uninformed’”

In a politically perilous move, Trump will demand funding for the wall in exchange for DACA

The following article by Emily C. Singer was posted on the mic.com website January 2, 2018:

President Donald Trump looks set to demand funding for the border wall between the United States and Mexico in exchange for codifying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into law. This could be a politically perilous move, which could tank any potential deal to shield undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors from deportation.

Dan Scavino Jr. — Trump’s social media manager who is the only one authorized to tweet from the @realDonaldTrump account besides Trump himself — tweeted Tuesday morning that, “There is no DACA – without the WALL being BUILT.” Continue reading “In a politically perilous move, Trump will demand funding for the wall in exchange for DACA”

How Trump is building a border wall that no one can see

The following article by Maria Sacchetti and Nick Miroff was posted on the Washington Post website November 21, 2017:

People hold conversations through the U.S.- Mexico border fence Saturday at Border Field State Park in San Diego. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

President Trump’s vision of a “big, beautiful” wall along the Mexican border may never be realized, and almost certainly not as a 2,000-mile physical structure spanning sea to sea.

But in a systematic and less visible way, his administration is following a blueprint to reduce the number of foreigners living in the United States — those who are undocumented and those here legally — and overhaul the U.S. immigration system for generations to come. Continue reading “How Trump is building a border wall that no one can see”

President Trump’s claim that a wall will ‘stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country’

The following article by Nicole Lewis was posted on the Washington Post website September 11, 2017:

“Just to add on, tremendous drugs pouring into the United States at levels that nobody has ever seen before. This has happened over the last three to four years in particular. The wall will stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country and poisoning our youth. We need the wall. It is imperative.”

— President Trump, remarks at a news conference with President Sauli Niinisto of Finland, Aug. 28, 2017

“That wall is also going to help us, very importantly, with the drug problem, and the massive amounts of drugs that are pouring across the southern border.”
— Trump, remarks at a rally in Phoenix, Aug. 22 Continue reading “President Trump’s claim that a wall will ‘stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country’”

Trump’s border wall brinkmanship may leave Republicans in Congress holding the bag

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website August 25, 2017:

THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump is doing more damage to the public image of congressional Republican leaders than any Democratic operative could in their wildest dreams.

The president’s threat to shut down the federal government if Congress does not pony up $1.6 billion for a border wall could further corrode his relationship with Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. It might also cause additional damage to the Senate majority leader and House speaker’s standing with the Republican base. Continue reading “Trump’s border wall brinkmanship may leave Republicans in Congress holding the bag”