The White House said Tuesday that President Trump is “pushing forward” with plans to build a border wall, amid reports that he’s seeking money from the Pentagon to pay for it.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr. Trump will make sure that any action he takes to build the wall will be “fully within his rights and his executive authority.”
“I can’t get into the specifics of that at this point,” she told reporters. “But I can tell you that the continuation of building the wall is ongoing and we’re going to continue moving forward in that process.”
The president tweeted last weekend that the $1.3 billion spending bill he signed for the current year, and an agreement for defense funding for next year, has made the military “again rich.” The spending measure allocates $1.6 billion for a border wall, out of the $25 billion that the president said is needed.
“Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!” the president said. Two advisers told The Washington Post that “M” stood for “military.”
The paper reported that Mr. Trump has been talking to advisers and to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan about paying for the wall with Pentagon funding.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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