Donald Trump on a tour of US-Mexico border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California, March 13, 2018 (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Donald Trump again seeks money from Congress for his Wall with Mexico, in a proposal further pushing away a balanced Federal Government budget.

Trump has failed, with a record-setting 35-day Government shutdown and then a “national emergency”, to get a penny for his $25 billion vanity project, a 30-foot tall steel or concrete structure along hundreds of miles on the US-Mexico border.

The White House said last month that it will take $6.8 billion from US agencies — mainly military money for counter-narcotics and construction projects — under the “national emergency”, in addition to $1.375 billion which a bipartisan Congressional bill authorized for border barriers.

But the effort has been stalled by multiple court challenges. Congress is threatening to override the declaration, with the Democratic-controlled House adopting the measure and the Senate on the verge of confirmation. The override would force Trump to back down or issue his first veto.

White House aides said Trump will request $8.6 billion in the annual budget proposal. They added that he will also ask Congress for $3.6 billion to replenish military construction funds seized under the “national emergency”.

Larry Kudlow, the president’s top economic adviser, continued Trump’s unsupported proclamations of “crisis” in a Sunday TV interview: “I would just say that the whole issue of the wall and border security is of paramount importance. “We have a crisis down there.”

Trump has lied about migrant crossings, which have declined year-on-year for more than two decades; interceptions, dropping for more than 40 years; and an “invasion” of drugs, the large majority of which come through ports of entry rather than across the border.

TrumpWatch, Day 757: National Emergency — Trump Lies About “Invasion”, Acknowledges Influence of Hard Right Commentators

On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump’s budget proposal is dead on arrival: “Congress refused to fund his wall, and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson.”

Slashing Social Services, Fuelling the Deficit

Administration officials said the budget proposal substantially increases military spending while sharply cutting domestic programs.

The proposal pushes out the promise of a balanced budget from 10 years to 15 years, and it is based on growth estimates which independent economists say are unrealitic.

Most economists see economic growth slowing in the US — in part because of the burden of Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut from December 2017 on the Federal budget and deficit — and the world. But the budget forecasts that US growth will rise to 3.2% from 2.9% in 2018.

The Federal Reserve forecasts 2.3% growth this year.

Kevin Hassett, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, insisted on Sunday that the tax cuts will fuel growth, with an increase in labor force participation by older workers.

The Administration’s proposal is the first attempt to adhere to spending caps that Congress adopted under President Barack Obama. It is accomplished only by budgetary sleight-of-hand, pushing much of his 4.7% military spending increase out of the regular budget and into Overseas Contingency Operations — an account used mainly for interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria and which is exempt from congressional caps.

Ironically, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was a fierce critic of the OCO as a “slush fund” in the Obama Administration.

Domestic discretionary programs will be slashed 5%.

Trump, who spent the weekend golfing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, did not explain his budget proposal. Instead, he tweeted about his Wall, incluing a snipe at hard-right commentator Ann Coulter: