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Trump privately presses for military to pay for border wall

phattonez said:
Big if true! I've been hearing rumors about this since this past weekend, and this seems to confirm it. Now let's see if he will follow through on this approach.
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I suppose that the following is "technically possible":

"Hello, General Milley. This is Donald John Trump, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America and your superior officer. You will immediately - repeat - IMMEDIATELY, deploy all available ground troops in the United States of America along the US/Mexico border and there have them construct a continuous wall and moat system along the entire US/Mexico border. This wall is to be no less than 30 feet high and the moat is to be no less than 20 feet deep. Construction will begin immediately - repeat - IMMEDIATELY using all available hand and power tools and you are to submit requests for further equipment and supplies within 48 hours. That, General Milley is a direct order."​

and might even be "constitutional" since the US military is NOT being used in a "posse commitas" role and is NOT being used in a "combat" role, and only the funds already allocated for the US Army would be used to feed, clothe, house, and provide medical services for the personnel who were already in the US Army.
 
poweRob said:
he's stating he wants to use that limitless pool of already allocated military money. Which could possibly be reallocated to building a wall on the grounds of "safety" or some bull**** like that.
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It needs congressional approval- give it up already
 
Floridafan said:
Furthermore, to use the money to build a wall would now take Congressional action. That wont happen.
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However it would NOT take "Congressional action" for the US Army to conduct "Mound And Groove Architecture" training.
 
Rogue Valley said:
I can't imagine the Pentagon allowing $25 billion to be shifted to an ego-trip border wall that won't work.

That much money could buy another Gerald R. Ford class nuclear aircraft carrier and a brand new Columbia class nuclear submarine.
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Who is in charge of the Pentagon, again?
 
Floridafan said:
Why even mention it, if you dont support it.
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Why would someone mention something happen that they don't want to happen? Lots of reasons.
 
Trump privately presses for military to pay for border wall
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Let the idiot finance the Great Wall of Derp himself. Then we'll use federal money to tear it down after he's out of office. That will be sweet. Lots of jobs.
 
phattonez said:
Who is in charge of the Pentagon, again?
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Trump siphoning money from our "depleted" military (Trumps own words) to fund his pet political project.

A public relations disaster. The Democrats would milk such "weakening of our military" for years lol.
 
phattonez said:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...6e51591e250_story.html?utm_term=.ed89ead52f9a

Big if true! I've been hearing rumors about this since this past weekend, and this seems to confirm it. Now let's see if he will follow through on this approach.
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So you're thrilled with the idea of the President ripping up the Constitution, and debasing the role of the US military, because Trump is too incompetent to negotiate for policies he wants.

Well, that's.... revealing.

And no, claims that "Obama did it!" do not make the Constitutional violations magically disappear.
 
Visbek said:
So you're thrilled with the idea of the President ripping up the Constitution, and debasing the role of the US military, because Trump is too incompetent to negotiate for policies he wants.

Well, that's.... revealing.

And no, claims that "Obama did it!" do not make the Constitutional violations magically disappear.
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There is no ripping up of the Constitution. If the border is a national defense issue (it is), then Trump has full authority to have the military secure it.
 
phattonez said:
There is no ripping up of the Constitution. If the border is a national defense issue (it is), then Trump has full authority to have the military secure it.
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My guess is, just saying it is doesn't make it so. It's gonna take some damned creative semantic gymnastics to call a wall on the Mexican border the type of 'national defense' issue that should involve the military. You'd have more credibility pointing to levees and such and citing the Corps of Engineers' involvement in infrastructure projects.
Still, I hope he presses the issue. Be fun to see if he gets defied by the Pentagon.
 
phattonez said:
There is no ripping up of the Constitution. If the border is a national defense issue (it is), then Trump has full authority to have the military secure it.
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In theory too, I would think he could call it a combat readiness drill. As CiC he wants to know that our armed forces are prepared go throw up a 2000 mile wall at a moments notice. Isn't that his preogative if he so wishes it?

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk
 
Grand Mal said:
My guess is, just saying it is doesn't make it so. It's gonna take some damned creative semantic gymnastics to call a wall on the Mexican border the type of 'national defense' issue that should involve the military. You'd have more credibility pointing to levees and such and citing the Corps of Engineers' involvement in infrastructure projects.
Still, I hope he presses the issue. Be fun to see if he gets defied by the Pentagon.
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You could make the claim based on health. We've had hepatitis A breakouts, tuberculosis, and the like, and you can convincingly argue that much of it is due to illegal entries from the border.
 
phattonez said:
You could make the claim based on health. We've had hepatitis A breakouts, tuberculosis, and the like, and you can convincingly argue that much of it is due to illegal entries from the border.
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Which makes it a public health issue.
Listen, it's not me or you who needs to convinced by the language. It's a bunch of generals and admirals and such who need to get on board the 'national defense' bandwagon. I just don't see it. Smells like desperation on Trump's part- Mexico won't pay for it, Congress won't pay for it, so the military will? I wonder why he didn't say it was a job for Homeland Security?
Can you see the Pentagon doing that job, and footing the bills? They'll translate the dollars into aircraft carriers and stonewall the whole thing.
 
Grand Mal said:
Which makes it a public health issue.
Listen, it's not me or you who needs to convinced by the language. It's a bunch of generals and admirals and such who need to get on board the 'national defense' bandwagon. I just don't see it. Smells like desperation on Trump's part- Mexico won't pay for it, Congress won't pay for it, so the military will? I wonder why he didn't say it was a job for Homeland Security?
Can you see the Pentagon doing that job, and footing the bills? They'll translate the dollars into aircraft carriers and stonewall the whole thing.
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Given that the military is not a separate branch of the government, yes. What choice do they have?
 
Grand Mal said:
Which makes it a public health issue.
Listen, it's not me or you who needs to convinced by the language. It's a bunch of generals and admirals and such who need to get on board the 'national defense' bandwagon. I just don't see it. Smells like desperation on Trump's part- Mexico won't pay for it, Congress won't pay for it, so the military will? I wonder why he didn't say it was a job for Homeland Security?
Can you see the Pentagon doing that job, and footing the bills? They'll translate the dollars into aircraft carriers and stonewall the whole thing.
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I would imagine the only issue that Trump would be concerned about is the legality of it. He has the power to order them to do it and if he does that then they won't be able to stonewall.
 
phattonez said:
Given that the military is not a separate branch of the government, yes. What choice do they have?
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I don't know. Can they be compelled to do something that far out of their job description? That sounds like Trump rules with the Divine Right of Kings, or something.
 
Kal'Stang said:
I would imagine the only issue that Trump would be concerned about is the legality of it. He has the power to order them to do it and if he does that then they won't be able to stonewall.
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Does the US military have to do whatever Trump says?
 
Grand Mal said:
Does the US military have to do whatever Trump says?
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If its a direct order then yes. If they don't then they can be court martialed and replaced. Or they can resign. In which case the next in line will have to do what is ordered. Rinse/repeat. Pretty sure that in the end, it will be done.

Note: This is only applicable to if Trump can legally shift the money to do this.
 
Grand Mal said:
I don't know. Can they be compelled to do something that far out of their job description? That sounds like Trump rules with the Divine Right of Kings, or something.
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It's not far out of the job description of the Army Corps of Engineers.
 
phattonez said:
It's not far out of the job description of the Army Corps of Engineers.
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No, and that's why I said he should have made it an infrastructure thing, instead of using the words 'national defense'. Makes sense that way, though it's still weird that he'd say the military is rich again and should pay for it. I'm pretty sure the Corps of Engineers didn't pay for the levees they built in New Orleans.
That's what this is all about, isn't it. Not who's going to build it, who's going to pay for building it.
 
Kal'Stang said:
If its a direct order then yes. If they don't then they can be court martialed and replaced. Or they can resign. In which case the next in line will have to do what is ordered. Rinse/repeat. Pretty sure that in the end, it will be done.

Note: This is only applicable to if Trump can legally shift the money to do this.
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Yeah, that's what I was wondering, can Trump order the military to pay for it. I know they do infrastructure work all the time, but Trump saying the military is rich again and should pay for it sounds like desperation to me.
 
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