



Donald Trump is floating the idea of using the military’s budget to pay for his long-promised border wall with Mexico.

Trump raised the idea with the House speaker, Paul Ryan, at a meeting last week, according to a person familiar with the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity.

And he has tweeted that building “a great Border Wall” is “all about National Defense” and called to “Build WALL through M!” – presumably meaning the military.

Departments have limited authority to reprogram funds without congressional approval.

Trump threatened to veto the omnibus spending bill last week in part because it did not include the $25bn he wanted to build his wall, one of his top campaign promises.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he would make Mexico pay for the wall.

Mexico has refused.



The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, would not discuss the plan at her regular briefing, telling reporters: “I can’t get into the specifics of that at this point.”

She said Trump “still has plans to look at potential ways” for Mexico to pay for it.