Donald Trump is still pushing his idea of building a wall between the United States and Mexico. He recently said he would be willing to shut down the government unless Congress gives him at least $5 billion to start building that wall.
It looks like he is now backing down from that threat, and may be willing to sign a funding bill that does not give him that $5 billion. That would be smart, because a clear majority of Americans (54%) don't think the wall is necessary for border security and opposes building that wall.
This doesn't mean Trump is giving up on the wall. He now says he will find the money for it in other parts of the budget. There's only one problem with that -- IT'S ILLEGAL. A president can't take money budgeted by Congress for one thing and use it for something different. A president can refuse to spend the money authorized, but he can't spend it on something different.
He has also threatened to have the military build the wall out of their budget (which is probably why he's asking military leaders to request a budget of $750 billion, instead of the current $716 billion). That has the same problem. It is not legal to spend money for defense on something else (no matter how bad Trump might want to do so).
It's time for Trump to realize his silly idea of a border wall is not going to happen. Congress won't give him the money for it, and most Americans don't want it.
The charts above use information in a new Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between December 12th and 17th of a national sample of 1,147 voters, with a margin of error of 3.4 points.
