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From the beginning, Trump’s declaration of a “national emergency” on the southern border did not provide him with unlimited funds or allow him to bypass Congress’ refusal to provide the funding he wanted for his wall. The sources of funding for an emergency declaration are very limited. And the best measure of how much what’s happening on the border was not an actual emergency can be demonstrated by the fact that, in the more than six months since Trump pulled that trigger, he hasn’t tapped those funds. Until now.
CNN reports that the money that Trump is going after now was originally slated to build hospitals, schools, and housing on military bases. These are dollars that had the misfortune of falling into one of the holes that Trump could tap by invoking the National Emergencies Act. However, officials at the Defense Department aren’t exactly thrilled about the the idea of handing over dollars that were supposed to provide some basic facilities to military families, and instead turn them into kid cages or more of Trump’s matte-black-evil fence. And with Trump’s recent decision to deny automatic citizenship to some children of military families, it’s a double slap in the face.
So the DOD has insisted on a “lengthy legal review” before handing over the money. That review requires a finding that Trump’s project to create an ugly ego-monument on the border is somehow in support of U.S. military operations—because the NEA, quite reasonably, allows military funds to be seized only for military purposes.
But while Trump’s hand-waving claims about gangs, drugs, and vans full of women and duct tape that turn left, left, left, never right may be enough to convince the screaming fans at his rallies that the picket fence of doom is required for national defense, genuinely making that case is a bit more difficult. The United States isn’t at war with Mexico. It’s not anticipating any genuine invasion. And if it were, creating a fence that can be cut through by an ambitious teenager with hand tools wouldn’t necessarily constitute a good expenditure of defense funds.
The results of that DOD review are still unclear. But it’s beginning to look as if the money may be pulled anyway.
As of August, the total number of new miles of wall built under Trump’s emergency declaration would be zero. None. Nada. Despite Trump’s claims, everything done so far has been a redo of areas that already had an existing barrier. However, in the last week some new sections of fence have been added to the already existing five miles of smaller barriers in the ecologically sensitive Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. That project will add … another five miles.
Despite Trump telling his aides to just ignore the law and count on a pardon to make things move more quickly, no one seems to be willing to put that to the test by planting a fence on private ground. Which means that Trump is unlikely to be anywhere close to his promised 500 miles of wall by the time he has to go back to his supporters in 2020—not that it will stop him from claiming that he’s built 500 miles, or 5,000.
But there’s another issue that’s getting in the way of Trump running off with military funds for his fence—and that’s the way Trump keeps running away with military funds. The Pentagon reports that since Trump ordered troops to the border as part of his effort to prove there really, truly was an emergency, the effort of having troops sitting around with an ill-defined role has run through $450 million that could have been used for other things.
Just another sign of how much Trump loves the military.