Retired Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey said Tuesday that any money diverted from the nation's military would "create shortfalls in important security priorities" after President Donald Trump suggested the possibility for paying for a wall to combat illegal immigration.
"The Defense Department justified their budget request with integrity prior to submitting it and having it approved," Dempsey, the retired Army general who served in the Iraq and Persian Gulf wars, said on Twitter:
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Trump was privately lobbying for the Pentagon to pay for the wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, citing a "national security" risk.
The president told advisers that he was spurned by Congress when they only appropriated $1.6 billion for fencing and other border security measures in the $1.3 trillion omnibus budget bill he signed on Friday.
Trump floated the idea of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin last week, who "offered little reaction to the idea," the Post reported.
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