Trump budget seeks $1.6B for ‘bricks and mortar’ for border wall

President Trump’s 2018 budget plan would set aside $1.6 billion on “bricks and mortar” for a border wall, CNN reported Tuesday — an amount that’s likely to fund only a small part of the wall Trump envisioned on the campaign trail.

The spending proposal is largely in line with Trump’s request for $1 billion in 2017 to begin construction on his long-touted wall. That request ultimately failed in Congress last month amid a scurry to pass a spending package.

The requested $1.6 billion would likely only cover a few dozen miles of wall along the southern border, according to CNN. The $1 billion request in 2017 was expected to pay for just 62 miles of barrier, including 14 miles of replacement fencing.

{mosads}The 2018 budget proposal would set aside another $1 billion for border security more broadly, including aircraft, weapons and surveillance technology.

The White House is also making additional requests to support other aspects of border security, such as recruiting, hiring and training new Customs and Border Protection agents.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to build a massive wall between the U.S. and Mexico as a bulwark against illegal immigration and drug trafficking. But the project, according to some estimates, would cost tens of billions of dollars.

Trump has insisted that Mexico will foot the bill for the barrier, but the country has fervently rejected that notion.