Conservatives have hit out at President Donald Trump for signing the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, which significantly increased military spending but failed to fund Trump’s Mexican border wall.
The bill allocated $700 billion to the Department of Defense, a $61 billion hike since last year, and the largest military spending increase in 15 years. Trump’s wall, however, received only $1.6 billion, a fraction of the $25 billion for which he had previously asked.
“There was only one guy who said at every speech, at every rally, for two years that he would build the wall,” conservative commentator Ann Coulter wrote on Saturday. “He has now signed a bill to prohibit building the wall.”
While the bill grants a windfall to the military, Coulter argued, “there is no more crucial attack on our national defense than the fact that we don’t have a wall.”
Trump appeared to have signed the bill reluctantly, putting his name to the 2,200-page document to avert a government shutdown.
The president’s explanation wasn’t enough for some of his former supporters. In an op-ed on fellow conservative Steven Crowder’s website, author Courtney Kirchoff called the bill a slap in the face for Trump’s supporters.
“He didn’t drain the swamp,” Kirchoff wrote. “He gave the swamp creatures exactly what they wanted: more frivolous government spending to feed a bloated government, while not funding the wall. Another oft-touted campaign promise.”
Even hardcore Trump supporters voiced their concerns on Twitter.
Despite the criticism, Trump insists the wall will be built. In a tweet after the signing, Trump alluded to using the military to build the wall, which he said is “all about national defense.”