Trump wants to gut housing for military families to pay for his wall

The Trump administration is considering taking money that was supposed to be used to build houses for military families, and use it to build Trump’s racist border wall instead.

Politico reports that Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has come up with the idea as a sneaky way to circumvent Congress, which has refused to fund Trump’s wall, and to avoid invoking a national emergency, which Trump has threatened to do if he didn’t get the funds he wanted.

The plan would shift money from Department of Defense funds slated for military construction, including family housing and infrastructure for military bases, to Trump’s useless pet project that most Americans don’t want.

The Trump team’s scheme would also take money away from disaster relief funds for California and Puerto Rico, along with funds allocated to flood control projects the Army Corps of Engineers has in place in Northern California.

This would unfortunately be par for the course for Trump, who has previously cut aid to Puerto Rico even as they continue to recover from Hurricane Maria.

Mulvaney hinted at the plot in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“There’s pots of money where presidents, all presidents, have access to without a national emergency,” he said.

Following through on such a plan would once again show Trump’s total disregard for members of the military and their families.

Instead of building houses and improving workplaces for people who have put their lives on the line for the country, Trump would be wasting money on an unnecessary wall that is inspired by his racist desire to limit migration by Latinos.

Trump is desperate to show his supporters, and his de facto bosses within the right-wing media, that he can deliver on his racist promises.

If Trump follows through with this latest plan, it wouldn’t even be the first time his wall obsession hurt military families.

Service members in the Coast Guard were not paid when Trump decided to shut down the government, which created an immediate crisis for them and their families. The disruption in their lives was just one example of the chaos Trump caused throughout the country.

Trump often claims to have intense love and admiration for the military — but time and time again, he has instead chosen to punish and hurt them in order to suit his own petty desires.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.