Donald Trump on Thursday railed against a proposed spending bill currently working its way through Congress that includes no money for Trump’s proposed border wall, Voice of America News is reporting.
As of this writing, Congress has failed to give the president a budget that he is willing to sign, which means that, in the absence of a budget, a government shutdown is looming. Just this week the Senate passed a stop-gap, $845 million spending bill that would keep the military and other government functions running until a permanent budget can be passed.
But Trump is having none of that, specifically because it doesn’t include money for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. And in an early-morning tweet on Thursday, Trump blamed Republicans for letting Democrats write a bill that doesn’t include border wall money.
“I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms? Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!”
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , Trump has promised to shut down the government on October 1 if he doesn’t get a spending bill that includes money for the border wall.
Construction of Trump border wall to begin in El Paso https://t.co/weP1KEstzQ pic.twitter.com/3peqIu2529
— El Paso Times (@elpasotimes) September 20, 2018
Back in July, Trump tweeted that he would be open to shutting down the government if Democrats didn’t give him money for a border wall.
“I would be willing to ‘shut down’ government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!”
Trump’s demands for Congress to give him money for a border wall stand in sharp contrast to Trump’s campaign promises that Mexico would pay for the wall. Throughout his campaign, and from time to time since becoming president, Trump has repeated the claim that, not only will there be a wall, but that Mexico will pay for it.
Mexico has repeatedly said that no such thing is going to happen.
President @realDonaldTrump : NO. Mexico will NEVER pay for a wall. Not now, not ever.
Sincerely, Mexico (all of us).
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) May 30, 2018
In 2017, Congress gave Trump a spending bill that only included a few tens of millions for border security, and that money was earmarked for improvements to the existing border fence; it included no money for a new wall.
Meanwhile, in the absence of government money for the border wall, some law enforcement officials in border communities have turned to crowdfunding to raise the estimated $20 billion needed for the wall. As WGHP-TV (High Point, North Carolina) reports, sheriffswall.org has, as of this writing, raised about $27,600.
