Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Forget Mexico: Trump Asks Military Families to Pay for Border Wall

The president’s new directive siphons millions from elementary school projects and hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico.

Another brick on the border wall.

By
Eric Lutz

September 5, 2019

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/09/forget-mexico-trump-asks-military-families-to-pay-for-border-wall

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper notified lawmakers of a change in the budget: 127 military projects would be delayed or suspended, he wrote, with some $3.6 billion in funds instead going toward Donald Trump’s border wall.

The changeup was a direct result of Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border. And Democratic lawmakers were quick to point out the irony.

“My view of it is that stealing money from military construction, at home and abroad, will undermine our national security, quality of life and morale of our troops, and that indeed makes America less safe,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on a call with her caucus, according to the New York Times.

Now, however, the details of where exactly that money will come from have been released, and the primary sources of the siphoning have infuriated lawmakers still further.

Per Department of Defense documents, Trump’s wall will wipe out $13 million for a “child development center” at Joint Base Andrews; almost $95 million for an elementary school at Camp McTureous in Japan; almost $80 million for an elementary school project in Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany; and $62 million for a middle school in Kentucky, among other things. New York, Chuck Schumer’s home state, will take a $160 million hit.

Even deeper gouging will occur in US territories, including in Puerto Rico, where more than $400 million in funding will be rerouted. Notably, a senior defense official told CNN that “most of the projects in Puerto Rico were a result of Hurricane Maria.” Trump, of course, has complained loudly that too many resources are being poured into the island.


Criticism over the funding reallocation has come from all sides. “In April, Senator [Mike] Lee and I expressed our significant concerns to the Secretary of Defense regarding the potential diversion of funds for critical military construction projects in Utah,” Senator Mitt Romney said in a statement, speaking for himself and for his fellow Republican.

“I’m disappointed that despite those concerns, two key military construction projects totaling $54 million will be delayed as a result of the February 2019 emergency declaration.” Democrat Tim Kaine, whose state will lose some $77 million in projects to the border wall, said he is “deeply concerned about President Trump’s plan to pull funding from critical national security projects...The well-being of American troops is the core responsibility of every commander in the military, yet the Commander-in-Chief is shirking that duty so he can advance his own political agenda.”

And then there’s the president, who inhabits a totally separate reality. “The Secretary of Defense spoke with members of Congress and explained it to them,” Trump said, “and I think he felt very good about it.” Defense officials, meanwhile, pointed squarely back at the president. “All these projects are important to us,” a DoD official told reporters.

“But we also have to respond to the emergency that we’ve been directed to respond to on the southwest border.” Of course, what the reshuffling ultimately proves is that Trump‘s campaign promise—to get Mexico to pony up the cash for the wall—is completely bunk.

In redirecting Pentagon funds meant for schools and daycares, as well as recovery efforts for Puerto Rico, he finally seems to be doing away with the pretense. Still, his core constituency seems determined to overcome the whiplash.

“The president never should have said Mexico is going to pay for the wall,” Trump sycophant Brian Kilmeade said Thursday on Fox & Friends before co-host Steve Doocey chimed in with, “I think he did think initially he would find a way for Mexico to pay for it, but as we know, that did not work.”