Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

RIP Trump's Wall

Republicans are refusing to fund construction while investing in ways to shore up existing barriers.

April 25, 2017 at 8:10 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

It was all a dream.
Photographer: iStock via Getty Images Plus

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Donald Trump's wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the signature issue of his presidential campaign, can safely be moved now from the "nearly dead" category to the just-plain-dead file.1493145507467

That's the only conclusion to be drawn from the Washington Post's report on the new Republican bidding on the funding bill for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which won't include anything for the wall. But it's not just that. Instead of the wall -- which would have drawn a filibuster from Senate Democrats, at least eight of whom are needed to pass the bill to keep the government open -- Republicans will be including money for "new surveillance technology to patrol the nearly 2,000-mile border" as well as "to repair existing fencing."