US to trim projects to contain Russia for Trump wall

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has authorized the allocation of $3,6 billion from the Pentagon budget for the construction of a “Trump wall” on the border with Mexico. To do this, less money will have to be allocated to projects related to containing Russia.

Фото: Depositphotos

In a letter published on Wednesday, the head of the Pentagon lists 127 objects whose funding will be cut for the construction of the wall. At the same time, the statement says that financing of projects is not canceled, but postponed.

It is a Pentagon projectslocated in 23 US states, three overseas territories and 20 foreign countries. Projects of approximately another $ 1 billion will probably have to be canceled completely.

Approximately $ 770 million of funding will be withdrawn from European projects, some of which are associated with containing Russia. In particular, projects to create a training center and a special operations center in Estonia and five projects to create military infrastructure in Poland will lose funding.

Nine school construction projects at US military bases around the world will suffer.

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The Pentagon's projects in the overseas territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands will lose the most, with a total of almost $700 million taken away. In Puerto Rico, projects to restore bases after Hurricane Maria, which hit the island in 2017, will lose funding.

What experts say

Director of the International Center for Defense and Defense in Estonia, security analyst Sven Satkov said in an interview with the Air Force that the reduction would not be too painful for Estonia’s military infrastructure.

“If you look at this in context, there was recently news in Estonia that the Ministry of Defense received about 2015 million euros from the United States between 2019 and 219. About half of this amount - about 90 million euros - has already been spent. The good news is that, compared to what has already been invested and spent on the construction of facilities, the budgets withdrawn are small.

Photo: screenshot YouTube / CBS This Morning

At the same time, it should be noted that additional premises [the construction of which has now been postponed] would have been important for training personnel. Both Americans and Estonians could use the base for special forces training. Unfortunately, funding has now been delayed. The document does not talk about cancellation, but only about postponement,” says Satkov.

“As I understand it, this means that in the future, when the time comes to pass the next defense budget act, Congress will regain the authority to manage these funds. I see no reason to worry because Congress today is very committed to supporting NATO on the eastern flank.”

“If we return to the context, this is expenditure under the European Defense Initiative. It was born in 2015 with a budget of $1 billion. In the 2019 fiscal year, the budget reached $6,5 billion, and next year the budget is expected to be $5,9 billion,” the analyst said.

Where will the money go?

At $ 3,6 billion, they plan to build 280 km of wall.

Фото: Depositphotos

In July this year, the US Supreme Court announced that President Donald Trump has the right to allocate $ 2,5 billion from the Pentagon budget for the construction of wall sections on the border with Mexico. The president managed to withdraw this money from the military budget, bypassing Congress after he introduced a state of emergency in the United States.

Several states challenged Trump's right to allocate money to the wall in court, considering it an abuse of power, but the Supreme Court took the side of the president.

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Democrats in Congress regularly criticize Trump's initiative. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump was willing to undermine military funding plans "for the sake of his own ego."

Trump has already announced that he will run for president in 2020. Building a wall for him now is a matter of principle, says Air Force analyst Anthony Zurker.

The decision to spend the military budget on the wall “could have political consequences for the president, but he clearly believes that the damage from failing to fulfill his 2016 campaign promises would be greater even if the project was financed by American taxpayers rather than Mexico. Disappointing voters is a much more serious risk,” Zurker said.

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“Trump has already posted aerial shots of the wall on Twitter (in fact, they were just barriers). His goal is to shoot even more videos so that he has something to show voters with a smile in the early stages of the 2020 presidential campaign,” the BBC observer believes.

The construction of the wall was the main promise during the Trump election campaign in the 2016 presidential election of the year.

The total cost of constructing such a wall over the entire 3200 km of the US border with Mexico, according to government estimates, will be $ 23 billion.

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