Border wall isn’t in spending plan

Congressional budget lacks funding for fencing.

WASHINGTON — “Mark my words,” Donald Trump said when he announced he was running for president nearly two years ago. He would build a wall on the southwest border, and Mexico would pay for it.

That promise has endured. It still sparks some of the loudest applause during Trump’s speeches, as it did at a weekend rally to mark his first 100 days in office.

But over the past week, Trump gave up on pushing Congress to include the billions of dollars needed for the wall in the spending plan that lawmakers expect to pass this week.

There is little sign that Mexico will be compelled to pay for it. And administration allies are increasingly trying to redefine “the wall” as something other than what Trump described in the campaign.

The wall may be the perfect metaphor for Trump’s administration so far: It remains a White House priority. But the wall remains very much in doubt, in part because members of Trump’s party seem unwilling to pay for it and members of his administration do not think it is completely necessary.

The $1 trillion deal to keep the government open through September, agreed to by the White House and congressional leaders late Sunday, does not include money for new fencing or new border agents as requested by the Trump administration.

It does include $1.5 billion for border security, a concession Democrats might not have made without the pressure from Trump on border spending.

But that money is allocated for technology and maintenance of existing infrastructure at the border.

The most notable new barrier in the spending plan: $50 million to upgrade the fence around the White House, requested after a wave of intruders began hopping the existing fence during the Obama administration.

Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary, said the border security money in the spending plan could help with planning, technology and other preliminary aspects of the wall.

He promised that Trump would push for more when he gets a chance to negotiate the 2018 budget, his first for a full year.

“This is a down payment on border security,” Spicer said.