Donald Trump Is Willing To Accept Less Money For His Border Wall, White House Says
Donald Trump is willing to accept less money for his proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border than the $5.7 billion he originally asked for, the White House revealed Monday. The lack of money for the wall is at least part of the reason the federal government is shut down with no end in sight.
As WABC-TV (New York City) reports, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney signaled that the 45th president is willing to take less than the $5.7 billion he’s asked for. How much less, however, remains unclear. Congress has offered him $1.3 billion, and Mulvaney says the administration is hoping for more, although how much more remains unclear.
Since Saturday, December 22, the federal government has been operating without a budget, essentially forcing it to shut down. Parts of it, anyway: As WABC explains, one-fourth of the government is shut down, mostly affecting national parks and other non-essential government services, and furloughing tens of thousands of federal employees.
Congress has provided Trump with a temporary, stopgap spending measure that would keep the government functioning, at least for the next few weeks while Congress and the president hammer out their differences in reaching a permanent budget. But Trump has refused to sign the stopgap budget because it doesn’t include enough money for his proposed border wall.
Trump has asked for $5.7 billion, while Congress has only offered him $1.3 billion.
Border wall GoFundMe tops $16 million, but unclear how US would get money: https://t.co/MKmM1OKxB9 pic.twitter.com/cKiyQySyZ9
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) December 24, 2018
The border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has been a focal point of Trump’s administration since he announced he was running for president in 2016. Trump initially got crowds at campaign rallies enthused by leading chants that said Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, as the Mexican government has reiterated several times that they would do no such thing.
Trump has since asked Congress for money for the wall and has gotten nowhere. Even his Republican-led Congress, the first time they gave him a budget, failed to include the billions Trump wants for a border wall, instead offering only a few hundred million for repairs to existing sections of the border fence.
Meanwhile, Trump fans have turned to crowdsourcing to raise money for the wall, having raised about $16 million. However, as previously reported by the Inquisitr, “donating” to the federal government is illegal, and those monies will almost certainly have to be refunded.
In a tweet Monday morning, Trump suggested that building a border wall will save money in the long run.
I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security. At some point the Democrats not wanting to make a deal will cost our Country more money than the Border Wall we are all talking about. Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018
Meanwhile, Mulvaney has suggested that the government shutdown will last well into January.
