White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday rejected the idea that President Trump is backing off his push for the border wall, and said the wall will be built even if Congress refuses to pay for it.
“The president is not softening his stance,” Conway said on Fox News. “He has a responsibility to keep the government moving forward, and has a responsibility to get border security. If he can do it by himself, he would have done it already.”
Trump wants Congress to give him $5 billion to help build the wall, but Democrats are refusing, and it’s not clear if there’s enough GOP support in the House for Trump’s plan. Conway accused lawmakers of “walking away” from the problem of border security, and said Trump would keep pushing for the money.
“This president’s not going to back down from that, and he will continue to fight for that funding,” she said.
When a Fox host said Trump has no leverage in the fight, Conway disagreed.
“That’s not true. The president always has leverage,” she said.
Conway indicated the White House is still examining whether it can find unspent money already approved by Congress, and use that to fund the wall. It wasn’t clear as of mid-week whether the money was there, or whether Congress would have to approve a decision to reprogram existing funding.
Democrats have already said they would oppose any push to reprogram federal funds in this way. But Conway also slammed Republicans for failing to support Trump’s push.
“I think the Republicans often take the path of least resistance, and they’re giving up their majority soon,” she said of House Republicans.
