Trump unilaterally declared a state of emergency along our southern border with Mexico and used that order to redirect funds for other construction projects to pay for his glorified border fence, but a significant portion of that funding was blocked by a federal judge in Texas yesterday evening.
Ruling in favor of the El Paso County government, U.S. District Judge David Briones ruled that using funds intended for other construction projects is illegal, but the use of funds from anti-drug programs may proceed.
The suit was brought by El Paso County and the Border Network for Human Rights. It argued that the administration overstepped its authority by "declaring a national emergency and violating laws of Congress limiting funds for barriers at the United States-Mexico border."
The county also argued that it would suffer reputational and economic harm from the border wall project because the president's emergency declaration created the impression that the border city was dangerous. In October, Briones, a Clinton appointee, ruled that such claims had merit.
A federal judge in California ruled that using funds from anti-drug programs is illegal, too, but as you may know the Supreme Court temporarily allowed the Trump regime to continuing using those funds.
To be honest, I expect the Supreme Court -- and more specifically the justices appointed by Trump -- will eventually allow him to use any of funds he wants to use. It's on Democrats and Americans in general to vote Trump out of office to make sure that will never happen. Any hypothetical Democratic administration would immediately halt all of Trump's border projects.
As of today, Trump has not succeeded in building any new sections of an actual "wall" in areas that did not already have existing barriers. Trump has replaced old sections of fencing and barriers first installed under the Bush administration with new sections of fencing and barriers.
In related news, Trump's glorified fence was scaled using a simple rope ladder a few days ago.