Members of Congress – of both political parties – reacted with stunned disbelief when President Trump did what he promised and announced yesterday that he would not sign a continuing resolution, or any other spending bill, that did not meet his border security goals.

“I’ve made my position very clear: any measure that funds the government must include border security,” the president said Thursday during a White House event.

Democratic leaders were incredulous that Trump intended to fight for the Wall, with the Senate’s Minority Leader New York’s Charles Schumer, saying the president was throwing a "temper tantrum."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, told reporters after meeting the president at the White House that Trump told them he will not sign the stopgap spending measure approved by the Senate Wednesday night because of “legitimate concerns for border security.”

The House of Representatives later Thursday approved a bill that would fund most of the federal government through early February -- and provides $5.7 billion for President Trump's long-promised border wall.

Eight Republicans joined all 177 voting Democrats to oppose the measure, which passed 217-185.



Squishy Republicans, such as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who is retiring at year's end, voted against the revised plan that would send $5 billion to the wall.

Looking forward to action in the Senate, conservatives, such as Congressman Paul Gosar continue to urge the president to fight for border wall funding.

“This is no time to settle,” Gosar told Breitbart’s Sean Moran in an exclusive interview. “This is the perfect time to fight.”

If the CR does not contain wall funding, the Arizona conservative said Trump should “absolutely” veto the spending bill.

The Freedom Caucus introduced an amendment to the CR on Wednesday night that would provide $5 billion in border wall funding and end the “catch and release” border policies. Gosar said the House Rules Committee, controlled by GOP leadership, blocked the amendment, ruling that it was not “in order.”

The congressman then told Mr. Moran he will continue to fight both Republican and Democrat leadership to fulfill his promise to the American people.

“All we kept hearing from leadership is that Schumer won’t put Pelosi in a precarious position to get the votes. You know what? Leadership is tough. And I’m not making it easy for any of them. I’m fighting my leadership, and I’ll be fighting their leadership, so the point is: let’s do what’s right for the American people. Trust is a series of promises kept, a promise that we made four times over. The same play call has been called before, and it doesn’t work; it’s time to invent a new idea,” he told Breitbart.

Gosar also revealed that he reached out to Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, a former Freedom Caucus congressman, to tell the president to hold strong on border wall funding.

Meanwhile, in an astonishing show of viral support for the Wall, a Florida man, Brian Kolfage, a triple-amputee veteran of the Iraq War, started a GoFundMe page this week to get everyday people to pay for the wall along the US-Mexico border. The goal? $1 billion.

“If the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall,” the campaign description reads.

As of 8:30 p.m. Thursday the GoFundMe campaign for Wall had raised over $9 million and broken into the top 5 GoFundMe campaigns.

Grassroots conservatives have also weighed in with thousands – if not millions – of phone calls and emails to Capitol Hill and the White House urging the President and conservative members of Congress to fight for the Wall.

And it seems to be having an effect, one Senate staffer told CHQ in an exclusive email interview that, “Phone calls to our Senate office were off the charts today. One message - start fighting!”

The notion that the border wall funding “can’t pass the Senate” is complete nonsense because it hinges on the Democrats’ threat of a filibuster – a threat that, thanks to Mitch McConnell’s weakness, they are never called upon to fulfill.

There are also other avenues that President Trump can pursue to fund the Wall – if he acts with alacrity before Democrats takeover the house and act to stymie his plans.

As former Congressman, now Fox News commentator Jason Chafitz wrote:

The federal budget is enormous – more than $4 trillion each year, of which roughly $1 trillion is discretionary. It is Congress’s job to authorize programs and appropriate funds for them from this $1 trillion.

However, the budget categories under which programs are authorized and funds are appropriated are very broad, and since Congress doesn’t pass specific language about every last dollar’s use, discretionary funds are inevitably used for things that Congress never specifically funds.

This is how the executive branch often gets the money it needs to do things that Congress won’t formally authorize. It finds money that has been either broadly appropriated or appropriated to a program that is expired and redirects it to a related program or purpose of its choosing.

Each year the CBO attempts to track these unauthorized expenditures. In July 2018, it reported this: “CBO has identified 1,035 authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of fiscal year 2018. Those authorizations appeared in 261 different laws and, when most recently in effect, authorized a combined annual total of $168 billion for certain agencies, programs, or functions. By CBO’s estimate, $318 billion has been appropriated for fiscal year 2018 for those agencies, programs, or functions.”

If the President acts to formally reprogram some of that $168 billion for the Wall before the Democrats take over the house and can cut him off at the pass, he may not need the funds he’s been fighting for in the year-end spending bill.

Securing the border isn’t going to happen in a Pelosi-run Congress.

We urge President Trump to veto any spending bill that does not have his minimum $5 billion for the wall, have the battle for the border wall now before Democrats are stronger and have more tools at their disposal.

We also urge CHQ readers and friends to lend their voices to our “Don’t Waste The Lame Duck, Build The Wall” campaign. Click the link above and send a letter to Republicans in Congress demanding that the GOP stand with President Trump and fund the wall on our southern border, and use this link to contact the White House to let President Trump know you back him and want him to fight the battle to fund the wall TODAY.