Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall

President Trump moved further to solidify his image as a petulant authoritarian, would-be despot on Friday.

In a Rose Garden press conference, the president discussed the ongoing government shutdown, now two weeks in, and the future of the border wall.

While suggesting that the shutdown could drag on for months (or even years), he also suggested that there were ways to get around Congress, in order to get the border wall built.

According to ABC News, he has suggested “reprogramming” funds from the Defense Department and other areas, and institution the military version of eminent domain, in order to get some parts of the wall done.

In other words, he wants the United States military to march onto the land of their countrymen, claim farming and ranching land along the border as property of the government, and to begin construction, as a military project.

The president, when asked about ABC News’ reporting later on Friday during a press conference, acknowledged that he would consider granting himself national emergency powers to help get the wall built “for the security of our country”. He did not elaborate on the details of such a process.

Oh,  it’s always about national “security,” but if you have to grab private land under the compulsion of our military, that doesn’t really make us safer. Rather, it makes us look like some broken, foreign kingdom.

On Friday, the president said he had had a “productive” and “very, very good meeting” after talks with top Democrats and other congressional leaders at the White House in an effort to end the partial government shutdown now heading into the third week. Just minutes earlier, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters outside the White House that Trump told lawmakers in their nearly hour and a half meeting that he is prepared to keep the government closed “for a very long period of time, months or even years.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the meeting “contentious.”

Ya think?

One administration official described the current executive action under consideration as clearing the way for the construction of roughly 115 miles of new border wall strictly on land owned by DoD, which would make up roughly 5 percent of the more than 2,000-mile border.

If Donald Trump attempts to go it alone on this border wall – a move that would be celebrated by the base, but roundly and rightly condemned by the other 70+ percent of Americans – he can expect a legal nightmare.

They would be right to object, often and loudly, as a simple matter of patriotism

We don’t give any man unfettered power in a free and independent republic.

Somebody break out the colorful flash cards and let Trump know why this would be a bad idea.

President Trump has attempted to sound the alarm on multiple occasions about a crisis on the border. In the summer of 2018, his own Department of Homeland Security disputed that claim.

2017 showed a dramatic drop in border apprehensions. In 2018, it rose by just short of 11 percent.

Meanwhile Trump has touted his administration’s efforts to cut illegal crossings, calling 2017 the lowest level of illegal entry on record. In the next breath, we’re in danger of being overrun.

So which is it? And why should the president be allowed to appropriate monies meant for other purposes, in order to build a wall he swore repeatedly that Mexico would pay for?

“I don’t think that this is a real possibility given the restrictions already in place on how money can and cannot be used,” Todd Harrison a defense budget expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies told ABC News. “It is against the law to use money for purposes other than it was appropriated without getting prior approval from Congress. I don’t think declaring a national emergency would make a difference in this case, so I don’t think their theory holds much water. Moreover, the president is likely to meet stiff resistance from defense hawks within his own party if he tries to use billions of dollars of military funding for something other than military purposes.”

And no, the border wall is not a military purpose.

Still, some seem to think there may be a way.

“The President has some limited authority to direct the Department of Defense to build portions of the barrier along the southern border,” Tom Bossert, Trump’s former Homeland Security adviser and current ABC News contributor said. “Depending on what approach he takes, every option available to him comes with some structural constraints and will be met with congressional opposition and legal action — even the very rare emergency authority that has garnered debate this week. Unless Congress acts, there is seemingly a significant limit to the amount of wall Department of Defense could build.”

Look for a military presence on private property along the border to be most unwelcome.