Trump wants a border wall, but few in Congress are willing to pay for it

WASHINGTON — It’s an open secret on Capitol Hill: President Donald Trump wants a “big, beautiful” border wall, but few in Congress are willing to pay for it.

The standoff, between the White House and lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats — has escalated tensions toward a possible government shutdown at midnight Friday as Congress races to meet a deadline to fund federal offices and operations.

Cooler heads will likely prevail. Talks are underway for a stopgap measure to keep the government running for another week or so while negotiations continue.

But the stalemate over Trump’s signature campaign promise — that he would build a wall along the border to deter illegal immigration and that Mexico would pay for it — remains a political divide.

It’s not that Trump’s Republican allies in Congress, who are the majority, don’t support the notions underpinning a border wall. Most of them do.

They just disagree with Trump’s approach for a physical barrier when other deterrents may prove more effective at stopping illegal crossings. And they don’t view the huge expenditure — as much as $70 billion by the latest estimate — a top priority right now.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, has called the wall a “metaphor” for border security — saying it’s one tool, among many, to protect the nearly 2,000-mile frontier.

Border state Republican Reps. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Martha McSally, R-Ariz., recently asked Homeland Security for more information about the wall project, saying they have “a number of questions.”

“Building a wall is the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border,” Hurd, a former CIA officer whose district includes 800 miles along the border, more than any other lawmaker, said earlier this year. “There is no question that we must secure our border, but we need an intelligence-led approach.”

And the most conservative Republicans in the House and Senate — namely deficit hawks — oppose any new federal spending, even on national security, which has long been a GOP priority, unless it is offset with budget cuts elsewhere.