Trump to ask Congress for $8.6bn for border wall

President Donald Trump today will ask the US Congress for an additional $8.6 billion to help pay for the wall he promised to build on the southern border with Mexico to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking, officials familiar with his 2020 budget request said. The demand is more than six times what Congress allocated for border projects in the past two fiscal years, and 6 per cent more than Trump has corralled by invoking emergency powers this year.

Democrats, who oppose the wall as unnecessary and immoral, control the US House of Representatives, making it unlikely the Republican president’s request will win congressional passage. The proposal comes on the heels of a bruising battle with Congress over wall funding that resulted in a five-week partial federal government shutdown that ended in January.

Regardless of whether Congress passes it, the budget request could help Trump frame his argument as the 2020 presidential race begins to take shape. “Build the wall” was one of his signature campaign pledges in his first run for office in 2016. “Finish the wall” is already a feature of his re-election campaign, a rallying cry plastered across banners and signs at his campaign rallies.

“It gives the president the ability to say he has fulfilled his commitment to gain operational control of the southwest border,” an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of the budget request.