Trump will 'use executive action' to build the wall, says conservative lawmaker

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

President Trump will accept the bipartisan spending deal to avert another government shutdown even though it includes just $1.375 billion to install barriers along the southern border, instead of the $5.7 billion Trump wanted, an unnamed conservative House member told CNN Tuesday.

Then, the representative added, Trump will simply "use executive action" to spend more money on border wall construction without congressional approval. The end result, the lawmaker said, is that the government will stay open and lawsuits will be filed over Trump's choice.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.