Trump has declared a "national emergency" and ordered the Department of Defense to begin the process of building his fantasy border wall, but initial planning can't even begin until the Pentagon has identified funds that can be redirected for it.
According to Roll Call, a significant portion of the funds Trump wants to redirect have already been spent and it could be legally impossible for the Pentagon to fund Trump's vanity project.
Out of the $6.7 billion that Trump wants want to redirect to his fantasy wall, over $2.4 billion or more than one-third of it is not available.
That includes $3.6 billion from unspent military construction money, $2.5 billion in unspent Pentagon counterdrug funds and $600 million from a Treasury Department asset forfeiture account.
But the Defense Department has told lawmakers that only $85 million remains unspent in the counterdrug account, a House Appropriations spokesman said Thursday.
The Pentagon is planning to ask Congress for authority to reprogram more than $2.4 billion from other military programs into the counterdrug account in order to then take it right back out and move it to the wall project.
Congress, which is now partially controlled by Democrats, is not going to let the Pentagon direct $2.4 billion from other programs to pay for Trump's wall. And that's an easy decision to make.
There's no way even the most moderate, Joe Manchin-ian Democrat will be afraid to vote against taking money away from legitimate military programs for Trump. And this is counterdrug enforcement funding. Trump tells us the wall is about stopping drugs, doesn't he?
The numerous legal challenges to Trump's wall may not even necessarily matter if he can't even securing funding to begin construction.