The Trump administration is looking to secure 7.2 billion dollars in 2020, to build 885 miles of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post.
Because the Trump administration took 3.6 billion dollars from military construction projects last year, it delayed the building of a waste treatment plant, road repairs, and the school construction on military bases. In 2020, it appears that this source of funding will again be siphoned off to aid the construction of the border wall. Whether or not the 3.6 billion dollars could be lawfully diverted to the border wall was challenged, but the 5th circuit court of appeals ruled this month that the funds can be used while a further legal ruling is to be determined at a later date.
The construction of the border wall was a key campaign promise made by President Trump in 2016, who claimed many times that Mexico would pay for the wall. Trump has walked back those statements since his inauguration claiming that Mexico would pay for the wall in roundabout ways such as through the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Deal, which does not actually have a provision for border wall compensation.
"You know with the wall, we're building a wall. You know that, right?" President Trump said at a political rally in Wisconsin this week. "And by the way, they think they caught me and they'd never catch us because, you know, Mexico's paying for the wall."