House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Screenshot)

Using money earmarked for construction projects to build a wall to secure the border “is bad for security of our border” and is “undermining our national security,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday.

President Donald Trump’s decision to reallocate $3.6 billion to fund border wall construction is an “assault on Congress’s power of the purse,” Pelosi said in opening remarks at her weekly press conference:

“The President's decision to cancel $3.6 billion for military construction initiatives makes us less safe by undermining our national security and the quality and life and the morale of our troops. And it dishonors the Constitution of the United States as the President negates the Constitution's most fundamental principle, the principle of checks and balances, the separation of powers and his assault on the Congress's power of the purse. “The decision is bad for security of our border, for the security of our nation and the well‑being of our children. “As you recall, the President said that Mexico would pay for the wall. Well, that's not happening. Instead, look who's paying. A prospective middle school, of $62 million in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky - take that money, spend it on the wall. Child care development center at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, $13 million - spend it on the wall. Fire station at Tyndall Air Force Base, that was very much destroyed with Hurricane Michael - $17 million for the President's wall.”

Trump is even thwarting efforts to "deter Russia aggression" by using the money to build a border wall, Pelosi said:

“Look at this, European deterrence initiative to combat Russian aggression: $771.5 million. Taking money to deter Russian aggression and spending it on the wall.”

“It’s appalling. Not only appalling, it’s dangerous” that Trump is diverting funds to build the border wall Democrats oppose, Pelosi argued: