{"id":6586,"date":"2019-01-04T17:07:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T22:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/?p=6586"},"modified":"2019-01-04T17:07:18","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T22:07:18","slug":"trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

President Trump moved further to solidify his image as a petulant authoritarian, would-be despot on Friday.<\/p>\n

In a Rose Garden press conference, the president discussed the ongoing government shutdown, now two weeks in, and the future of the border wall.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to ABC News,<\/a> he has suggested \u201creprogramming\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The president, when asked about ABC News\u2019 reporting later on Friday during a press conference, acknowledged that he would consider granting himself national emergency powers to help get the wall built \u201cfor the security of our country\u201d. He did not elaborate on the details of such a process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh,\u00a0 it\u2019s always about national \u201csecurity,\u201d but if you have to grab private land under the compulsion of our military, that doesn\u2019t really make us safer. Rather, it makes us look like some broken, foreign kingdom.<\/p>\n

On Friday,\u00a0the president said he had had a \u201cproductive\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and \u201cvery, very good meeting\u201d 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 \u201cfor a very long period of time, months or even years.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the meeting \u201ccontentious.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ya think?<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If Donald Trump attempts to go it alone on this border wall \u2013 a move that would be celebrated by the base, but roundly and rightly condemned by the other 70+ percent of Americans \u2013 he can expect a legal nightmare.<\/p>\n

They would be right to object, often and loudly, as a simple matter of patriotism<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t give any man unfettered power in a free and independent republic.<\/p>\n

Somebody break out the colorful flash cards and let Trump know why this would be a bad idea.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> disputed that claim.<\/p>\n

2017 showed a dramatic drop in border apprehensions. In 2018, it rose by just short of 11 percent.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Trump has touted his administration\u2019s efforts to cut illegal crossings, calling 2017 the lowest level of illegal entry on record. In the next breath, we\u2019re in danger of being overrun.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that this is a real possibility given the restrictions already in place on how money can and cannot be used,\u201d Todd Harrison a defense budget expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies told ABC News. \u201cIt is against the law to use money for purposes other than it was appropriated without getting prior approval from Congress. I don\u2019t think declaring a national emergency would make a difference in this case, so I don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And no, the border wall is not a military purpose.<\/p>\n

Still, some seem to think there may be a way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President has some limited authority to direct the Department of Defense to build portions of the barrier along the southern border,\u201d Tom Bossert, Trump\u2019s former Homeland Security adviser and current ABC News contributor said. \u201cDepending 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 \u2014 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Look for a military presence on private property along the border to be most unwelcome.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3473,"featured_media":5064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1582,359,41,1579],"class_list":["post-6586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-department-of-defense","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-donald-trump","tag-eminent-domain"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So what would the military marching on private land and telling U.S. citizens that their property is no longer theirs look like?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So what would the military marching on private land and telling U.S. citizens that their property is no longer theirs look like?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Susan Wright on the Right\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SusanWrightWriter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-04T22:07:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/965\/2018\/10\/Migrant-Caravan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Susan Wright\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SweetieWalker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Susan Wright\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/\",\"name\":\"Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-04T22:07:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-04T22:07:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#\/schema\/person\/4386bc3ea26f961bcf78653324e7a37b\"},\"description\":\"So what would the military marching on private land and telling U.S. citizens that their property is no longer theirs look like?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/\",\"name\":\"Susan Wright on the Right\",\"description\":\"Let's talk\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#\/schema\/person\/4386bc3ea26f961bcf78653324e7a37b\",\"name\":\"Susan Wright\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e3564e5054b8f4300924c9095810ba71?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e3564e5054b8f4300924c9095810ba71?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Susan Wright\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SusanWrightWriter\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SweetieWalker\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/author\/swright\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall","description":"So what would the military marching on private land and telling U.S. citizens that their property is no longer theirs look like?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall","og_description":"So what would the military marching on private land and telling U.S. citizens that their property is no longer theirs look like?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/","og_site_name":"Susan Wright on the Right","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SusanWrightWriter\/","article_published_time":"2019-01-04T22:07:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":432,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/965\/2018\/10\/Migrant-Caravan.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Susan Wright","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SweetieWalker","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Susan Wright","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/","name":"Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-04T22:07:18+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-04T22:07:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#\/schema\/person\/4386bc3ea26f961bcf78653324e7a37b"},"description":"So what would the military marching on private land and telling U.S. citizens that their property is no longer theirs look like?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/2019\/01\/trump-looks-for-a-military-option-to-grab-private-land-build-the-wall\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trump Looks for a Military Option to Grab Private Land, Build the Wall"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/","name":"Susan Wright on the Right","description":"Let's talk","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#\/schema\/person\/4386bc3ea26f961bcf78653324e7a37b","name":"Susan Wright","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e3564e5054b8f4300924c9095810ba71?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e3564e5054b8f4300924c9095810ba71?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Susan Wright"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SusanWrightWriter\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/SweetieWalker"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/author\/swright\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/susanwright\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}