President Trump, who signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill last week, is frustrated with the amount Congress provided to finance a U.S.-Mexico border wall and is pressing to use money dedicated to the military. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) 
 
 President Trump, who repeatedly insisted during the 2016 campaign that Mexico would pay for a wall along the southern border, is privately pushing the U.S. military to fund construction of his signature project. 
 
 Trump has told advisers that he was spurned in a large spending bill last week when lawmakers appropriated only $1.6 billion for the border wall. He has suggested to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and congressional leaders that the Pentagon could fund the sprawling project, citing a “national security” risk. 
 
 After floating the notion to several advisers last week, Trump told House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) that the military should pay for the wall, according to three people familiar with the meeting last Wednesday in the White House residence. Ryan offered little ­reaction to the idea, these people said, but senior Capitol Hill officials later said it was an unlikely prospect. 
 
 The president’s pursuit of defense dollars to finance the U.S.-Mexico border wall underscores his determination to fulfill a campaign promise and build the barrier despite resistance in the Republican-led Congress. The administration’s last-minute negotiations with lawmakers to secure billions more for the wall failed, and Trump grudgingly signed the spending bill Friday after a short-lived veto threat. 
 
 Four days later, Trump continued to express regret over signing the $1.3 trillion package, which funded the government and averted a shutdown, saying it was a mistake and he should have followed his instincts. 
 
 In another interaction with senior aides last week, Trump noted that the Defense Department was getting so much ­money as part of the spending bill that the Pentagon could surely afford the border wall, two White House officials said. The Pentagon received about $700 billion in the spending package, which Trump repeatedly lauded as “historic.” 
 
 Meanwhile, the $1.6 billion in the bill for some fencing and levees on the border not only fell far short of the $25 billion that Trump was seeking, but it also came with tight restrictions on how the money could be spent. 
 
 The individuals and officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about private discussions. 
 
 [Trump signs massive spending bill, but not before a little drama] 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflected a question Tuesday about money dedicated to the military being used to fund construction of the wall. 
 
 “I can’t get into the specifics of that at this point, but I can tell you that the continuation of building the wall is ongoing, and we’re going to continue moving forward in that process,” Sanders told reporters. 
 
 “Build WALL through M!” Trump recently wrote on Twitter. He retweeted those words Tuesday, noting that “our Military is again rich.” Two advisers said “M” stood for “military.” 
 
 The president has suggested to Mattis that his department, instead of the Department of Homeland Security, could fund the construction, two Trump advisers said. But the military is not likely to fund the wall, according to White House and Defense Department officials. 
 
 The Pentagon has plenty of money, but reprogramming it for a wall would require votes in Congress that the president does not seem to have. Taking money from the 2018 budget for the wall would require an act of Congress, a senior Pentagon official said. 
 
 To find the money in the 2019 defense budget, Trump would have to submit a budget amendment that would require 60 votes in the Senate, the official said. 
 
 Democrats in Congress would probably chafe at military spending going to the construction of a border wall, and military officials may also blanch, White House advisers said. 
 
 Defense hawks in the Republican ranks would balk at taking money now dedicated to the Pentagon for aircraft, weapons and improvements to the armed forces’ readiness and instead steering it toward construction of the wall. 
 
 “First Mexico was supposed to pay for it, then U.S. taxpayers, and now our men and women in uniform?” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This would be a blatant misuse of military funds and tied up in court for years. Secretary Mattis ought not bother and instead use the money to help our troops, rather than advance the president’s political fantasies.” 
 
 Trump has grown frustrated watching constant TV criticism of the spending package and is determined to find a new way to fund the wall, several advisers said, privately grousing that his political supporters could become disenchanted without progress. After a recent trip to see prototypes of the wall in California, Trump has grown more animated by the issue, advisers said. 
 
 
 
 The president’s comments raising the possibility of using Pentagon funds to build the wall came after the collapse of negotiations with Democrats to secure $25 billion in long-term wall funding in exchange for protections for young immigrants at risk for deportation because of Trump’s cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 
 
 The White House offered three years of protections for DACA recipients, according to multiple congressional aides, but Democrats demanded ­pro­tections for a larger group of “dreamers,” including those who never applied or are ineligible for DACA. The negotiations fell apart before the spending bill was drafted and passed last week. 
 
 [‘Trump blew it’: The president missed his best chance yet to get funding for his border wall] 
 
 The urgency to strike a deal reflected the growing sense that the spending bill represented the last chance for the Trump administration to secure substantial wall funding, at least in the president’s first term. Top Republicans believe it is all but certain that Democrats will gain House seats in November’s midterm elections — and perhaps take the majority — greatly enhancing their bargaining position in future spending negotiations. 
 
 Only $641 million is earmarked for new primary fencing in areas that have no barriers, and most of the money can be spent only on “operationally effective designs” that were deployed as of last May. That means the prototype designs the Trump administration is exploring cannot be built, except along a stretch of the border near San Diego where a barrier is already in place. 
 
 Greg Jaffe contributed to this report. ||||| The Department of Defense "has no legal authority" to use appropriated funds for President Donald Trump's border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, two Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis. 
 
 "Until we can have a wall and proper security we're going to be guarding our border with the military," Trump said Monday at the White House. "That's a big step." 
 
 Trump originally floated the idea of the military paying for the wall over Twitter and in a discussion with Mattis late last month. 
 
 "Such a controversial move could only be funded by cutting other vital priorities for our service members, mere weeks after the Department communicated its needs to the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee during omnibus appropriation negotiations," Democratic Sens. Jack Reed and Dick Durbin wrote. 
 
 "We conclude that the Department of Defense has no legal authority, with or without a reprogramming request, to use appropriated funds for the construction of a border wall." 
 
 The letter from Reed, of Rhode Island, and Durbin, of Illinois, comes on the heels of reports that Trump suggested the ideato "several advisors" after being disappointed by the amount of money allocated for border security in the $1.3 trillion omnibus. 
 
 Dana White, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, confirmed last week that Mattis had "initial" talks with Trump about diverting a portion of the DOD's budget to construct a wall on the border. 
 
 The Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. 
 
 Congress would have to appropriate the money to make it work — a notion Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., touched on over the weekend. Scott said that Congress would "absolutely" need to weigh in on reprogramming defense funds to the border wall. 
 
 "The reality of it is, as commander-in-chief, he can certainly send signals through Secretary Mattis, have a conversation with Congress about where those dollars should be spent," Scott said told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to go around Congress and utilize the U.S. military to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border even if he does not get funding, just hours before he was to meet with the top two Democratic lawmakers. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington before his departure for the annual Army-Navy college football game in Philadelphia, U.S., December 8, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas 
 
 In a series of early-morning tweets, Trump praised his administration’s moves to block migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico and said efforts to stop a caravan of migrants seeking to reach the United States were a success, and vowed that “the Wall will get built.” 
 
 The president is seeking $5 billion for the border wall, a campaign promise that he has made into a central issue as Congress seeks to finalize spending before some federal government funding expires on Dec. 21. 
 
 “If the Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country, the Military will build the remaining sections of the Wall,” Trump said on Twitter ahead of the 11:30 a.m. EST meeting. 
 
 U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi - who has called building a wall “immoral” - are expected to offer just $1.3 billion for border security when they meet with Trump, a senior Democratic aide said. 
 
 This is less than the $1.6 billion a bipartisan Senate committee has approved, but it would extend current funding levels at the Department of Homeland Security until Sept. 30. 
 
 Democrats say that what Trump wants cannot pass Congress, and warn that if Trump insists on his way, part of the government could be forced into a shutdown. Congress has not yet approved spending bills for about a quarter of the government. 
 
 Even though Congress is still controlled by Republicans until year’s end, Democrats are needed to get the supermajority required to clear Senate procedural hurdles on spending legislation. 
 
 Asked if a compromise was possible, Pelosi told reporters on Tuesday: “We’ll see.” 
 
 Trump deployed the U.S. military to the border area before Nov. 6 congressional elections, calling the caravan an “invasion.” Critics decried the action as politically motivated. 
 
 For Trump and his Republicans, it may be their last chance to get wall funding before Democrats take over the majority in the new House of Representatives in January. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday defended Trump’s $5 billion request, saying “the need is great.” 
 
 This year, “Customs and Border Patrol reported a 30 percent increase in apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. 
 
 But Pelosi told members of her caucus Tuesday that she will oppose any wall funding above $1.3 billion, a level that would rule out new construction, according to a lawmaker who attended the meeting. 
 
 “She just kind of outlined ... that the wall increased funding is not really up for debate,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, who is expected to chair the House homeland security committee when Democrats take control of the House in January.
– After failing to get Congress—or Mexico—to cough up enough cash for a wall along the Mexican border, President Trump has been looking into getting the Pentagon to pay for it, reasoning that it has plenty of money under the new federal budget, insiders say. The sources tell the Washington Post that Trump, worried that failure to build the promised wall will cause supporters to desert him, has been privately pushing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, among others, to make the wall a military-funded project because of national security fears. But officials say the military is unlikely to pay for the wall, and even if the Pentagon was willing, it would require an act and the move would not get 60 votes in the Senate. In a tweet Tuesday, Trump argued that the military is "rich" and building a border wall is all about national defense because there are "enemy combatants pouring into our Country." "Build WALL through M!" he urged. Trump wants $25 billion for the wall, but the latest spending bill allocates just $1.6 billion, with restrictions on how it can be spent. "First Mexico was supposed to pay for it, then US taxpayers, and now our men and women in uniform?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tells the Post. "This would be a blatant misuse of military funds and tied up in court for years." CNN reports that press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to comment on possible military funding Tuesday. The "continuation of building the wall is ongoing, and we're going to continue moving forward in that process," she said.