President Donald Trump has promised to pardon aides if they have to break federal laws to get hundreds of miles of new border wall built before the 2020 election, according to current and former officials involved with the project.
Aides have been directed to fast-track contracts, disregard environmental rules, and to be aggressive while seizing private land, reports The Washington Post.
A White House official, speaking anonymously, said Trump is joking when he mentions pardons. However, the president has promised to complete 500 miles of border fencing by the November 2020 election, but just 60 miles of replacement barrier went up during the first two-and-a-half years he has been in office, and officials say he's been holding White House meetings to push hard about it.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Mark Esper is expected to sign off on a request for $3.6 billion from the Pentagon to be diverted to the wall project, after lawmakers refused to allocate the $5 billion Trump wanted.
The money would come from Defense Department projects from 26 states, administration officials report.
Last week, officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Army Corps engineers that the fencing must go up before the election, according to administration officials speaking anonymously.
“Border Patrol insists on compressed acquisition timelines, and we consent," said one senior official. "Their goal is to get contracts awarded, not for us to get a quality contract with a thoroughly vetted contractor."
Trump also wants the barriers to be painted, which will add between $70 million and $133 million to the costs, according to an internal analysis.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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