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“can Trump do it without congressional approval?”

There are two Congressional functions involved - authorization and appropriation.

Authorization is the approval, and appropriation is providing money.

The authorization to build barrier along the border has already been passed into law (notably in the Secure Fence Act of 2006, but also in other legislation).

From the standpoint of a potential legal argument, the authorization is further reinforced by the fact that Congress continues to provide money (appropriations) every year (just not enough - slow-rolling an effective program).

All that remains then, is for enough legal sources of funding to be provided by Congress (appropriations) - or otherwise identified by the Administration.

Because the Government has grown so big and complicated, and because so many powers have been written into law, it is generally possible for an Administration to dig a few billion in loose change from among the cushions of the Federal Sofa.

That might be a reason why Mick Mulvaney, the former head of the Office of Management and Budget, became the White House Chief of Staff - he knows where the money can be mined out of the existing budget.

For an example, in the past, the Military was given a mission to support Counter-Narcotics efforts by law enforcement, and specifically authorized the power to use their Counter-Narcotics budget to build fences, roads and lighting in drug trafficking corridors along the border.

Separately, DoD has the authority to shift around some of their budget internally (called re-pprogramming) to adapt to changing conditions during the year. During 2019, the Military fell short of its recruiting goals, so some of the money budgeted to pay salaries for those who were not hired, was going to be left over. Every year there is a “sweep” to identify such money left over, for whatever reason.

That money had been legally appropriated, was legally re-programmed into the Counter-Narcotics account, and they are already erecting bollards with it. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of it in July.

Based on what we have seen in the past, The Trump Administration has backup plans for funding, if Congress fails to appropriate enough. They may have to use different techniques from this last year, but they do seem like they have been prepared for it.