Tag Archives: border wall

From the climbing aficionado site Rock & Ice: Many in the climbing community were amused a couple weeks ago when our POTUS held a press conference at a section of his latest border wall design—a series of parallel square steel posts with a 5-foot-high plate at the top. “Impossible to climb,” he stated. He boasted that “the federal government tested …

Mediaite reports: According to the forthcoming book Border Wars, by New York Times reporters Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael Shear, Trump — on Dec. 18, 2018 — was irate after seeing the Drudge headline: “USA Giving $4.8 Billion to Mexico.” And the president went on to dress down the aides who convinced him to make the agreement with the country. …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump told aides last year he wanted U.S. forces with bayonets to block people from crossing into the United States across the Mexico border, one of several proposals he floated at moments of peak frustration with his inability to contain a migration surge, according to current and former administration officials involved in those discussions. Trump …

The New York Times reports: Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed …

Bloomberg reports: The Trump administration scrapped three border wall projects that it said it intended to build using money found from cost savings in constructing other portions of the barrier along the southern border. In a court filing on Friday (Sept 13), the administration said it had determined the savings weren’t sufficient to pay for the additional 20 miles of …

Roll Call reports: Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer will announce that his caucus will force another floor vote to terminate President Donald Trump’s border security national emergency. “This rises to a large and vital constitutional issue: does our country truly have checks and balances, particularly important when we have such an overreaching president? This vote will also provide a …

Mediaite reports: Fox & Friends made a subtle but almost historic confession on Thursday’s show: President Donald Trump “never should have” run on the 2016 campaign promise that Mexico would pay for his border wall. The admission that Trump top campaign promise was a fantasy came as the curvy couch talked about how Trump is drawing money from other projects …

The Associated Press reports: Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved the use of $3.6 billion in funding from military construction projects to build 175 miles (282 kilometers) of President Donald Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. Pentagon officials would not say which 127 projects will be affected but said details will be available Wednesday after members of Congress are notified. They …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project. He also has told worried …

ABC News reports: The group that raised millions of dollars to build a privately funded border wall separating Mexico from the U.S. is under criminal investigation in Florida, according to officials. We Build The Wall, a nonprofit organization that crowdfunded more than $25 million on GoFundMe, is under investigation by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Services, which has oversight …

Roll Call reports: According to several people familiar with the process, Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby, an Alabama Republican, wrote an allocation for the fiscal 2020 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill that is about $5 billion lower than it would have been to provide funding for the wall. Congress and the White House reached agreement on a budget deal raising discretionary …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to build a wall along parts of the Mexican border while litigation over paying for it proceeds. A trial judge had prohibited the administration from transferring $2.5 billion from the Pentagon’s budget to fund the effort, and an appeals court had …

Talking Points Memo reports: A private border wall construction project lauded by Trumpers nationwide is actually partially on Mexican soil, Mexican government engineers alleged in photos their American counterparts shared with the builders this month. Tempting an international incident, the border wall group isn’t budging. Instead, they’ve moved to attack mode, with their founder calling the binational body that governs …

Bloomberg reports: A federal appeals court kept in place a judge’s ruling barring the Trump administration from moving ahead with construction projects for a southern U.S. border wall using funds not approved by Congress. The order issued Wednesday by a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based court was in response to an administration request for permission to begin the process …

The Hill reports: The man who allowed a private group to build a portion of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border in Sunland Park, N.M., is reportedly being charged with illegally constructing without a permit and could now face jail time. George Cudahy, owner of American Eagle Brick Factory, allowed the group We Build The Wall to use his property …

Bloomberg reports: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has put up just 1.7 miles of fencing with the US$1.57 billion that Congress appropriated last year for President Donald Trump’s wall along the Mexican border, a federal judge was told. A lawyer for the U.S. House of Representatives provided the information Tuesday to the judge in Oakland, California, who is weighing requests …

The Associated Press reports: The Pentagon is shifting $1.5 billion in funds originally targeted for support of the Afghan security forces and other projects to help pay for construction of 80 miles of wall at the U.S.-Mexican border, officials said Friday. Congress was notified of the move Friday. It follows the Pentagon’s decision in March to transfer $1 billion from …

Bloomberg reports: President Trump on Monday took advantage of the White House Easter Egg Roll to promote his administration’s accomplishments and assure a young attendee that a wall along the southern border is being built. The president joined children to color cards for members of the military when he said a young boy told him, “Keep building that wall.” “It’s …

Politico reports: Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that the House will file a lawsuit to challenge President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration on the southern border, dramatically escalating a clash over wall funding. “The House will once again defend our Democracy and our Constitution, this time in the courts,” Pelosi wrote in a statement. The House will take the rare legal …

The New York Times reports: President Trump on Friday issued the first veto of his presidency, rejecting legislation that opposed his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southern border. The bill blocking Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration had attracted significant Republican support in Congress. “Today I am vetoing this resolution,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the …