Some of President Trump’s allies in conservative media are again knocking the president for his apparent willingness to sign a border security deal negotiated this week by Congress and are instead urging him to act unilaterally to fund a wall along the southern border.
But while the president ultimately bowed to pressure from an array of conservative columnists, radio hosts, and TV commentators who pushed him to reject a government spending measure in December that did not include the $5.7 billion he wanted for a border deal — prompting the 35-day partial government shutdown — it appears they won’t be successful in dissuading Trump from signing this border deal.
“Trump talks a good game on the border wall but it’s increasingly clear he’s afraid to fight for it. Call this his ‘Yellow New Deal,’” conservative author Ann Coulter said in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.
On her website Wednesday, Coulter knocked Trump’s “cowardly retreat” from building the wall and sarcastically accused the president of not taking border security seriously.
“Announcing the TRUMP BORDER TRELLIS! Not just a garden trellis, it might extend for yards and yards!” she tweeted.
“How about a design contest for the fabric covering of the TRUMP BORDER TRELLIS? Be forewarned: It could require up to 20 yards of fabric,” Coulter snarked in a subsequent tweet.
Outrage on the Right over the agreement started after it was announced Monday a bipartisan group of congressional negotiators had reached a deal on a government spending measure that would provide $1.375 billion for 55 miles of new barriers on the southern border. The figure, however, is far less than the $5.7 billion Trump had demanded for the border wall this year or the $25 billion he said is needed in total.
As details of the deal began to trickle out, conservative commentators bristled.
During their respective shows Tuesday night, Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity each lambasted the agreement. Hannity called it “garbage” and a “compromise typical of the D.C. sewer and swamp,” a pointed reference to the very place Trump promised to “drain.” Ingraham, meanwhile, said the “border wall” became the “border stall” that kicked the fight over border security into 2020.
“After @realDonaldTrump signs this border deal — the current depopulation of Central America into the US will only speed up. #travesty #bipartisanfailure,” she tweeted Wednesday.
Jenny Beth Martin, president of the Tea Party Patriots, called the agreement “worse than a joke.”
In December, Trump reversed what appeared to be his intention to accept a deal, and a slew of federal agencies were shuttered for five weeks in what was the longest government shutdown in history.
But this time, the president appears to have less of an appetite for another government shutdown and told reporters Wednesday another lapse in funding “would be a terrible thing.”
While Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday he is “not happy” with the proposal, he signaled he may be on board with the deal, tweeting that it “will be hooked up with lots of money from other sources.”
The White House is looking at shifting unspent federal dollars through executive order as a way of bolstering funding for the wall, and Trump said declaring a national emergency to circumvent Congress remains a consideration.
The prospect of unilateral action has the endorsement of some in conservative media.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh predicted Trump will sign the border deal and subsequently declare a national emergency.
“The $1.375 billion will take us through the end of this fiscal year, through the end of September. It will be used to complete current under-construction projects. Declare a national emergency, go use this other $23 billion,” Limbaugh said.
Hannity, meanwhile, said it “would be perfectly reasonable” for Trump to veto the bill, but he outlined a path where Trump then uses $900 million available at his discretion to boost wall money and declare a national emergency.
Trump said the White House is examining the border security deal for “landmines,” and he hasn’t definitively said whether he will sign the measure. The House is set to vote on the bill Thursday, narrowly skirting the Friday deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.
