President Trump really, really wants that wall.
He wants it so much, the Washington Post said in an exclusive report Wednesday, that he’s promised White House aides he’ll pardon them if they break the law getting 500 miles of border barrier constructed by election day 2020.
That’s a tall order, given that in the first two and a half years of Trump’s presidency, only 60 miles of new fencing has been raised, all in places that already had some kind of barrier — as well as existing infrastructure that would have to be built from scratch elsewhere.
Trump is also insisting the high barrier be painted black, which will slow the process and add to its cost.
As usual, the main reason Trump wants to get the wall built in the 14 months he has left is — Trump.
“The president has told senior aides that a failure to deliver on the signature promise of his 2016 campaign would be a letdown to his supporters and an embarrassing defeat,” the Post says.
When staffers suggest that some of what he wants could be illegal, including the use of eminent domain to seize private property, the Post says, Trump has simply ordered them to “take the land.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll pardon you,” he has said, according officials who were at meetings about the wall. One unnamed White House official told the Post that when Trump talks about pardons, he’s joking, which remains very much to be seen.
But before steel can rise, money must flow. The Pentagon will have to divert billions in tax dollars already commited to other projects around the country.
“Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper is expected to approve a White House request to divert $3.6 billion in Pentagon funds to the barrier project in coming weeks, money that Trump sought after lawmakers refused to allocate $5 billion,” the Post says. “The funds will be pulled from Defense Department projects in 26 states, according to administration officials who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity….”
After reviewing “internal communications,” the Post says it learned that in May, Trump ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to paint the entire border fence black, and to top it with sharpened tips.
“Administration officials have stopped trying to talk him out of the demands, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to instruct contractors to apply black paint or coating to all new barrier fencing, the communications show,” the Post says. The paint is slippery and gets hot to the touch in sunlight, making the barrier harder to climb. But it will add many millions of dollars to the cost.
There will also be cost to the environment. Construction companies need heavy earth-moving equipment to erect the barrier, equipment that damages “environmentally sensitive border areas adjacent to U.S. national parks and wildlife preserves.”
But, says the Post, the Trump administration has waived procedural safeguards and impact studies, claiming threats to national security from migrants.
“They don’t care how much money is spent, whether landowners’ rights are violated, whether the environment is damaged, the law, the [regulations] or even prudent business practices,” one senior official told the newspaper.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Defense officials insist they can finish about 450 miles of barriers by election day, but three-quarters of that would be in places where there is already border fencing of some kind.
