President Trump will siphon off an additional $7.2 billion in Pentagon funding for his border-wall construction this year, according to a report from TheWashington Post. That’s five times what Congress authorized him to spend on the project in 2020’s budget. The newspaper reports the money will come from the cancellation of several military construction projects, and would be enough to finish about 885 miles of barriers by early 2022. If the money is diverted, it would bring the total amount of federal funds allocated to border fencing to $18.4 billion under Trump. He infamously claimed Mexico would pay for the wall during his 2016 campaign. The Trump administration has built around 100 miles of barriers so far, far less than the 450 miles the president promised to build by the 2020 election. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, has been placed in charge of the project to speed it along before November.
