Limbaugh: Trump can build border wall without Congress

President Donald Trump (White House photo)

Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh says there might be "hell to pay," but he says the time has come for President Trump to "break" the Democrats and build the border wall using the executive power he already has.

It's all over the refusal of Democrat leaders to fund border security, or negotiate over those plans, and it comes down to a "showdown" of power between the executive branch and the legislative branch.

"He is the executive. He does not have some of the executive power, he has all of it!" Limbaugh said on his Monday broadcast.

"There are all kinds of departments and bureaucracies and areas of the executive branch with unspent money, and Trump can go get whatever he needs from any of those different departments and allocate it, and he can get started building the wall, and he can do it constitutionally on the premise that he is engaging in an act of national security!"

Limbaugh explained: "There are many people who think the president has the executive power to start building this wall with money that's already been allocated in budgets that exist in the executive branch and he can and he does. There will be hell to pay."

"I mean, if you think this is bad, the minute a wall's construction has actually begun with money that Chuck Schumer and his gang don't think they participated in allocating or appropriate, they go nuts and they start shouting and yelling 'impeachment.' But the fact of the matter is – and the Washington swamp would be too."

He said it's time now for President Trump to take an aggressive stance on what is considered the usual give-and-take and compromise in Washington.

"I think it's time to take a shot at breaking these people on this right now. I think it's time to illustrate that the Democrats are acting like a bunch of spoiled-brat little kids when it comes to an issue of national security and prosperity and the rule of law. Don't forget here we're talking about illegal immigration," he said.

"The message should continue to be it is the Democrats who do not want to fix this! It's the Democrats who are saying 'no'! It's the Democrats who are the obstacle to border security or to reopening the government or whatever. It's the Democrats who want no part of it. It's the Democrats who are stopping things. It's the Democrats who won't cooperate. It's the Democrats who won't across the aisle. It's the Democrats who won’t compromise," he said.

"All of this is true. All of this needs to be part of the messaging. It is the Democrats who are not interested in securing the southern border. It's the Democrats who are acting like children. It's the Democrats who are acting like spoiled brats. That is what needs to be illustrated and with every Republican signing on to this, that objective can be reached. It requires full-fledged support for the president and the premise which every Republican should sign on to.

"It's the Democrats willing to damage the country rather than support the president. It's the Democrats willing to put the country in great peril because they are refusing to shore up the border. It needs to be demonstrated. And to me this is a golden opportunity. Everything we want to do, everything we want to teach people about the Democrats and illustrate is right here on the table, and it's already happening. We just need to be pointing it out each and every day," he said.

He said the Democrats are not just opposed to a border wall, they're "unwilling to appropriate any money whatsoever for border security."

Can Trump actually direct a wall project that hasn't specifically been funded by Congress?

Possibly, he said. After all, there have to be ways for an executive to operate, especially in the field of national security, he said.

For example, where did Barack Obama get the nearly two billion dollars that he sent off to Iran?

"Did Obama call his buddies at the Fed and say, 'We need you to print me some money'? Did Obama go to various federal agencies? Did he go to the defense budget or did he go to a bunch of different places and get the money? Where did he get cash? Where do you get that much cash?"

At that time, he pointed out, "Nobody in Congress said, 'Mr. President, you can't do that. We didn't authorize it. We didn't appropriate it,' and even if somebody in Congress would have said that, Obama would have said (impression), 'I can do it 'cause you can't stop me and I know you won't and I have the media on my side.'"

This is, after all, Limbaugh noted, what voters expected from Trump when he was elected.