Trump is going to funnel another $7.2 billion into his border wall from Pentagon funds

If you thought the border wall was old news, only a part of last year's election cycle, well, it may be time to think again. As it turns out, United States President Donald Trump is only getting started. It was revealed earlier this week that the President plans to funnel another whopping $7.2 billion, otherwise dedicated to the Pentagon, into his wall along the southern border of Mexico and the United States. This amount is five times what Congress authorized him to spend on the border wall from the 2020 budget, The Washington Post reports. It is at present unclear how Trump has gained approval for this extrajudicial spending.

In the year 2019, President Trump diverted $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds, which would have been used for military counterdrug programs for border barrier construction, to build his border wall. This year, he plans to redirect significantly more. Allegedly, his administration will take $3.5 billion. In addition to this, Trump will be taking $3.7 billion in military construction funding. This is only slightly more than the $3.6 billion he diverted from the same fund last year. And yet, people continue to ask how the United States would ever be able to fund a universal healthcare program. Here's a hint, guys: Don't build an ineffective border wall.

This brings the total federal funding diverted to Trump's controversial border wall to $18.4 billion. Do you remember when he promised to make Mexico pay for the damn thing? Those were the days, huh? Even if he isn't keeping that part of the promise, work is underway on the wall at the southern border. As per the most recent figures, the Trump administration has completed 101 miles of new barriers thus far. However, this number falls far short of what the President had pledged earlier (which seems to be quite the recurring pattern, don't you think?). President Trump had initially assured Congress as well as American citizens that his administration would have completed 450 miles of barriers by the end of the year. At present, this figure seems unattainable.

Despite this, Chad F. Wolf, acting homeland security secretary, claimed that the Trump administration has not fallen behind their proposed targets. During an event held at the border in Yuma, Arizona last week to mark the completion of the 100th mile of border wall barrier, he asserted, "I can tell you that we remain confident that we are on track to 400, 450 miles that are either completed or under construction by the end of 2020." This was the first time a Trump administration official had "counted barriers 'under construction' toward the President’s pledge to complete 450 miles by Election Day." D-Day is only a few months away, and if Trump doesn't pick up the pace soon, perhaps he can kiss the very few votes he hoped to get goodbye.