The “big beautiful wall” has now become “steel slats.”
President Donald Trump is tweaking the words he uses to describe the barrier he’s hoping to build along the U.S.-Mexico border, in part because Democrats appear more amenable to approving money for “fencing” rather than a “wall.”
As the budget standoff has played out, Trump has adjusted the way he refers to his long-promised wall, which was the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign.
“The Democrats, are saying loud and clear that they do not want to build a Concrete Wall – but we are not building a Concrete Wall, we are building artistically designed steel slats, so that you can easily see through it,” he tweeted Tuesday.
During a bill signing Friday, Trump went further, saying he didn’t care what people called it: “One way or the other we’re going to get a wall, we’re going to get a barrier, we’re going to get anything you want to name it. You can name it anything you want.”
He later praised the House for “approving strong border security and the money necessary to take care of the barrier, wall or steel slats,” adding, “Whatever you want to call it, it’s all the same.”
A design of our Steel Slat Barrier which is totally effective while at the same time beautiful! pic.twitter.com/sGltXh0cu9
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018
That was a far cry from the campaign, when Trump promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” made of concrete, rebar and steel across the length of the southern border. Back then, he lashed out at the suggestion that what he was proposing had anything in common with mere fencing,
“Jeb Bush just talked about my border proposal to build a “fence.” It’s not a fence, Jeb, it’s a WALL, and there’s a BIG difference!” he tweeted in 2015.
And just before taking office, Trump corrected a reporter who’d described his plans as such.
“It’s not a fence, it’s a wall. You just misreported it,” Trump said at a post-election press conference.
Even before he took office, 654 miles of manmade barrier had been constructed along the border. In the 1990s, Congress provided money under the “Secure Fence Act” and constructed much of what stands today. Many refer to what was built then as “border wall.”
That changed with Trump, in part because of his specific campaign pledge to build a gleaming, impenetrable “border wall” that Mexico was going to pay for.
Now, he wants the American public to pay.
And they have. In budget year 2017, Congress provided $292 million to the Department of Homeland Security to build a steel-bollard wall to replace “ineffective” barriers. More than 31 of 40 miles have been constructed, and nine more are scheduled to be completed by 2019.
A March funding bill, passed with support from both parties, provided $1.6 billion to build a system that included replacements and new barriers, including levees, steel bollards with narrow spacing between each post and, in some locations, both concrete walls and bollards.
The lawmakers’ language was notably narrow, limiting the administration to using existing barrier designs instead of the new wall prototypes Trump had built in San Diego near the border.
That meant Democrats could continue to crow that they’d given Trump no wall money, while Trump claimed he was already well into construction using money that Congress approved for border security.
“At this moment there is a debate over funding border security and the wall, also called — so that I give them a little bit of an out — ‘steel slats,‘” Trump said Thursday. “We don’t use the word ‘wall’ necessarily, but it has to be something special to do the job.”
(AP)
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13 Responses
A desperate liar. Tell us, how is “Mexico is going to pay for it” going to be misconstrued?
The usual AP anti-Trump spin. Fake news as usual. What a bunch of Democrat propagandists. Honest press? An oxymoron.
…and here we have another AP writer who instead of listening to the speeches, announcements, or their own newswires, will instead parroting late night Television comedians. So let’s get off the twitter and rehash facts,
This is what the experts want, the people in charge. They prefer it for officer safety so that they can see what’s going on the other side. Combine it with the announcement that special forces were defeated by the “slats”, and now you have, the rest of the story.
Didn’t Trump insist that his wall was gpoing to be see through so you could see 15lb bags of drugs being thrown over it?
If 9 miles takes months to construct, how long does a 1500 mile wall take?
Insanity…
Who the dickens cares what you call it or what it’s made of ????? …. Slates, flats, wall, mechitzah, barrier…. Just keep aliens out..secure our country from the invaders.
Unbelievable.
rt
Trump will argue that he did not mean that Mexico will directly pay for the wall. Rather, he will extract money from Mexico in other ways that will cover the cost of the wall.
It’s not fake news, just look at his twitter.
I’ve been one of the most pro-Trump people here, but he’s selling out. By his own words (back when he was pretending to care about border security) he said that slats are NOT a wall. The illegals can talk to each other through them, hand drugs through them, etc.
Trump is FAKE EVERYTHING
Through and through.
Cant even be a successful xenophobe
The steel industry and the Rustoleum people will love it. So will the smugglers — easy to push stuff between the slats. Maybe Trump can talk his base into painting it a la Tom Sawyer.
I had a brainstorm. Build the wall out of Legos. It can be built using volunteer child labor.
This is just a waste of money. A 20 foot high wall can be overcome with a 21 foot high ladder; a 30 foot high wall can be overcome with a 30 foot high ladder. As others have pointed out, contraband can easily be passed through the slats and taking out even a single slat — easily done with common machine tools — can allow unlimited passage through the barrier. In addition, the wall requires the confiscation of the property of the very landowners who have for years been cooperating with the Border Patrol to reduce illegal entries. Schumer and Pelosi are right; Trump should accept their offer for $1.6 billion in enhanced high tech border surveillance.
One can pass drugs through the slats but someone needs to be on te other side to receive it. Border patrols are in the area and can prevent such an exchange.
If ladders work how does the wall work in Israel ? How come walls work around jails , around the White House ? I would think it is easier to aprehend some one trying to climb with a ladder than just walking through
Trump just gave 10 billion to Mexico he should have given them 15 billion under a condition that they build a 5 billion wall
One thing is to say that the trump is not effective which is what shummer has said but Nancy seems to believe is inhumane , I can only understand that to mean she wants open borders
Meant to say wall not trump *