Tag: Trump border wall

Trump’s preferred construction firm lands $1.3 billion border wall contract, the biggest so far

Washington Post logoA North Dakota construction firm that has received backing from President Trump has now secured the largest border wall contract ever awarded, a $1.3 billion deal to build 42 miles of black-painted fencing through the rugged mountains of southern Arizona.

The company that won the contract, Fisher Sand and Gravel, has been repeatedly lauded by the president in White House meetings with border officials and military commanders, the result of a long and personalized marketing pitch to Trump and ardent supporters of his barrier project.

After its initial bids for border contracts were passed over, the company and its CEO, Tommy Fisher, cut a direct path to the president by praising him on cable news, donating to his Republican allies and cultivating ties to former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon, GOP Senate candidate Kris Kobach and other conservative figures in Trump’s orbit. Continue reading.

Trump’s border wall is literally getting a new paint job and it will cost taxpayers an additional $500 million

AlterNet logoFrom the beginning President Donald Trump has been very specific about his border wall.

He promised Mexico would pay for it. They did not. It has cost taxpayers up to $30 million per mile.

He promised it would run from coast to coast. As of November, no new wall had been built. But the administration has not released figures and the vast majority of wall construction has been replacement of existing wall. Continue reading.

Trump’s wobbly claim that his wall could stop the coronavirus

Washington Post logoWe’ll have 500 miles [of the Southern border fence] built by very early next year, some time, so, one of the reasons the numbers are so good. We will do everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering our country. We have no choice. Whether it’s the virus that we’re talking about or many other public health threats. The Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and well-being of all Americans. Now you see it with the coronavirus, you see it.”

— President Trump, at a campaign rally in Charleston, S.C., Feb. 28, 2020

“Going up fast. We need the Wall more than ever!”

— Trump, in a tweet, March 10, 2020

Trump is using the covid-19 outbreak to justify his push for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, even though the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public-health experts say they haven’t seen evidence it can stop the virus from spreading.

Steel for border wall in Arizona being made by company with ties to pro-Trump super PAC: report

AlterNet logoThe term “conflict of interest” has repeatedly come up in connection with Donald Trump’s presidency, often in connection with Republicans being encouraged to hold events in Trump properties. But a different type of Trump-related cronyism is being reported in the Arizona Daily Star: according to the Star’s Curt Prendergast, a company that is helping construct a border wall in Arizona has ties to a Trump-friendly PAC (political action committee).

Prendergast reports that 30-foot steel poles being “erected” in Arizona as part of a southern border wall have the name Atlas Tube on them; Atlas Tube is a Chicago-based division of Zekelman Industries —which is run by Canadian billionaire Barry Zekelman. According to Prendergast, Barry Zekelman led a “wide-ranging effort to urge Trump and other officials to place tariffs and import quotas on steel.”

“That effort included a $1.75 million donation to a pro-Trump super PAC and meeting with Trump and others in April 2018,” Prendergast reports. Continue reading.

Trump’s border wall hangs over spending talks

The Hill logoPresident Trump‘s proposed border wall is looming as a central obstacle to passing spending bills by a December deadline.

The top appropriators in the House and Senate have already struck an agreement ahead of Thanksgiving on how to divide $1.37 trillion in annual spending among 12 bills. But lawmakers still need to agree on how to deal with the border wall — a top issue for Trump that precipitated a government shutdown last year.

With just 15 legislative days between the Thanksgiving recess and a deadline of Dec. 20 to pass the spending bills, appropriators will face long odds to avoid another shutdown unless they punt on the issue with a continuing resolution (CR).

View the complete November 30 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

Jared Kushner’s new assignment: Overseeing the construction of Trump’s border wall

Washington Post logoPresident Trump has made his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the de facto project manager for constructing his border wall, frustrated with a lack of progress over one of his top priorities as he heads into a tough reelection campaign, according to current and former administration officials.

Kushner convenes biweekly meetings in the West Wing, where he questions an array of government officials about progress on the wall, including updates on contractor data, precisely where it will be built and how funding is being spent. He also shares and explains the president’s wishes with the group, according to the officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser is pressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the process of taking over private land needed for the project as the government seeks to meet Trump’s goal of erecting 450 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of 2020. More than 800 filings to seize private property will need to be made in the coming months if the government is going to succeed, officials aid.

View the complete November 25 article by Josh Dawsey and Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.

Berliners tried to send Trump a piece of the Berlin Wall with a message saying ‘no wall lasts forever’

On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berliners tried to send President Donald Trump a massive slab of the structure, along with a message reminding him that “no wall lasts forever.”

The stunt was organized by the nonprofit Die Offene Gesellschaftand financed by private donations, according to Quartz. It takes aim at Trump’s efforts to build a wall along the US-Mexico border to halt illegal immigration.

The 2.7-ton chunk of concrete arrived in Washington, DC, on Saturday, and local media outlets reported that the Secret Service turned it away.

View the complete November 9 article by Michelle Mark on the Insider website here.

Trump Admits Smugglers Are Sawing Through His Border Wall

Shifting from previous claims that his signature wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would be “virtually impenetrable,” President Donald Trump on Saturday admitted “you can cut through anything,” even as he continues push for a structure that an internal Department of Homeland Security report says will cost $21.6 billion to complete. 

Trump was responding to a Washington Post report, published Saturday, that revealed smugglers have “repeatedly sawed through new sections of President Trump’s border wall in recent months by using commercially available power tools.”

“We have a very powerful wall. But no matter how powerful, you can cut through anything, in all fairness. But we have a lot of people watching,” Trump told reporters.

View the complete November 3 article by Elizabeth Preza from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Smugglers have been sawing through Trump’s border wall

Axios logoSmuggling gangs in Mexico have been using power tools to saw through new parts of President Trump’s border wall, making openings for people and drug loads to pass through, according to the Washington Post.

Why it matters: The border wall was one of Trump’s significant policies and rallying cries during the campaign, and it is “a physical symbol of his presidency, touting its construction progress in speeches, ads and tweets,” the Post writes.

Details: Smugglers have used a household tool called a reciprocating saw that sells at hardware stores for about $100, the Post reports, citing U.S. agents and officials. The tool’s blade can slice through the barrier’s steel in minutes.

  • They have also used ladders to go atop the barriers in areas around San Diego, per the Post.

View the complete November 2 article by Fadel Allassan on the Axios website here.

Trump administration has acquired little of the private land in Texas it needs for border barrier

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration has acquired just 16 percent of the private land in Texas it needs to build the president’s border barrier, casting doubt on his campaign promise to complete nearly 500 miles of new fencing by the end of next year, according to the latest construction data obtained by The Washington Post.

And of the 166 miles of border barrier the U.S. government is planning to build in Texas, new construction has been completed along just 2 percent of that stretch a year before the target completion date, according to the construction data. Just four miles of the planned border wall in Texas is on federal land — the other 162 lie on private property.

Faced with intense pressure to meet Trump’s 500-mile campaign pledge, administration officials have instead prioritized the lowest-hanging fruit of the barrier project, accelerating construction along hundreds of miles of flat desert terrain under federal control in Western states where the giant steel structure can be erected with relative ease.

View the complete October 26 article by Nick Miroff and Arelis R. Hernández on The Washington Post website here.