Trump May Get His Wall After All

The probability that President Trump builds his “big, beautiful wall” just got ten times more likely. On Wednesday the White House announced plans to divert $3.6 billion from military construction projects to erect new wall structures along the southern border with Mexico. The move follows a devastating report in July from U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealing that President Trump had not built a single mile of new wall that didn’t merely replace old fencing since taking office, contradicting administration claims.

Just days after the CPB report, however, the president received welcome news from the Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision, the Court approved the use of $2.5 billion in military funding for border wall construction, which the White House claimed would create 100 miles of new fencing. If a similar cost-per-mile holds for the new funding, the administration could reasonably hope to construct an additional 144 miles of wall, bringing the total newly built fencing to 244 miles.