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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump quietly signed a law Friday that spends $ 853 billion on the defense ministry and other federal agencies and $ 0 for his promised long wall along the US-Mexico border.
The signing avoids a partial government shutdown that would have occurred at midnight Monday if Trump had vetoed the measure, as he had threatened to do so for months if the Republican-led Congress did not provide funds.
"It shows the President that this is a budget issue," said Stan Collender, a former long-time staff member of the House and Senate budget committees.
At campaign rallies, Trump had repeatedly threatened to shut down the government if he did not receive at least several billion dollars to start building a wall. On September 20, two days after the Senate approved the latest spending program with a vote of 93 to 7, Mr. Trump written on Twitter"I want to know, where is the money for border security and the wall in this ridiculous spending bill, and where will it come after the Midterms? Dems hinder the application of law and border security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY TOUCH! "
"It's the opposite of Teddy Roosevelt. Speak aloud and carry a little stick, "said Collender with a laugh, adding that in future negotiations, Congress leaders will remember Trump's inability to respond to the threat. "The hill does not forget. They will dismiss everything he says.
Some of Trump's supporters and informal advisers had pushed him to veto the spending bill and force Congress to provide funding to the wall. They feared that his most enthusiastic supporters would run for the mid-term elections if they believe Trump has abandoned his first and most often repeated campaign promise.
"President Trump has made it clear that he will not use his veto to get his border wall," said William Gheen, leader of the radical group "Americans for Legal Immigration." "He intensified his rhetoric that he would veto spending bills that do not finance the wall, and he signs it."
Trump signed the measure out of media view. Announcements were announced a few hours later in a press release that only reaffirms the brutal summary of the bill. The bill provides for annual funding for the Departments of Defense, Education, Labor and Health and Social Services, as well as funding until 7 December for organizations not covered by this legislation or by a previous law.
Trump promised from the day he began his campaign in June 2015 that he would build a "Great Wall" to end illegal immigration from Mexico.
"I would build a big wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I will build them very cheaply," Trump said in his Trump Tower announcement. "I will build a big wall on our southern border. And I will ask Mexico to pay for this wall. Listen to me carefully."
Over the next 17 months, Trump promised hundreds of times that he would build the wall quickly and at no cost to US taxpayers. Trump said his wall would be at least 30 feet high and lay deep underground to prevent people from digging tunnels. In December 2015, during a visit to Manassas, Virginia, Trump even went into the details of the construction.
"It will be made of hardened concrete, and it will be made from rebar. It's steel, "said Trump in response to a question from a young boy from the audience. "And we will define [the rebar] in beautiful, heavy foundations.
During a phone call with Enrique Peña Nieto a few days after taking office, Trump told the Mexican president that he would understand that Mexico would not pay the wall, but asked Peña Nieto not to say it publicly to avoid embarrassing Trump.
The Trump administration has never touched on the subject with the Mexican government, according to a spokesman for Peña Nieto's office.
In March, Trump signed a $ 1.3 trillion bill for the entire government, including only $ 38 million for the planning and design of its border wall, and nothing for construction.
Laura Raquel Manzo from HuffPost Mexico contributed to this report.
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