Where Does Trump Intend To Get Wall Money From

President Donald Trump's border wall has been one of the near useless and expensive infrastructure projects in American history. But it succeeded across expectations equally a symbol that unites and mobilizes Trump supporters — which is why he used it as a lark and a showcase for defiance the mean solar day before the House impeached him for the second time.

Less than a calendar week after his followers stormed the nation'due south Capitol in a siege that led to five dead, Trump was anything only remorseful in a speech to border security agents near the pocket-sized town of Alamo in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. He dismissed efforts to remove him from office earlier his term ends next Wednesday and suggested — absurdly — that President-elect Joe Biden could be the one removed.

"The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me simply will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration. Every bit the expression goes, be careful what you wish for," Trump told the crowd. More ominously, he claimed that impeachment is a hoax "causing tremendous acrimony and division and pain, far greater than nigh people will ever understand, which is very unsafe for the U.s.a., especially at this very tender time."

The insinuation: There could be a violent response.

Familiar lies about a MAGA symbol

Trump spent most of his speech touting the wall, his signature act in office. In a flurry of terminal-minute structure, the Department of Homeland Security announced the completion of 450 miles of the allegorical bulwark. Nonetheless, Customs and Border Protection reports that only 47 miles of that are new primary wall where no barrier had existed. That's a scant accomplishment for $fifteen billion of taxpayer money.

Reports have shown enormous cost overruns and supplemental contracts to construction firms without competitive bidding, triggering a Government Accountability Office investigation with findings due early this yr. This follows a 2018 GAO study that anticipated the waste product and plant that the project did not follow protocols and had no clear mensurate of effectiveness. Scores of legal challenges accept been filed related to appropriation of individual land and violation of ecology laws.

The DHS inspector general also establish that the agency did not assess costs and benefits of the project or follow other procedures.

President Donald Trump on Jan. 12, 2021, in Alamo, Texas.

Trump, however, considers the wall a triumph and signed his name on a plaque affixed to the metal strips earlier rattling off a familiar list of lies and misleading statistics. He took credit for the 2020 driblet in edge apprehensions without mentioning that overall crossings fell by one-half under pandemic lockdowns. He heralded statistics on seizures of illicit drugs, failing to point out that 90% of those accept place at ports of entry that have nothing to do with the wall.

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He lauded his offensive confronting what he chosen "asylum fraud," despite the fact that his authorities airtight asylum on the U.South-United mexican states border in violation of international police force, rather than assess and hear cases. He also repeated unsubstantiated claims that migrants live off U.Due south. welfare and that Eye East terrorists come over the southern border — an assertion that his own counterterrorist officials have repeatedly debunked.

Veiled warnings are danger signs

The litany was a rehash of Trump's greatest hits, but since the attempt to subvert the legal transfer of ability, in that location were unsafe signs embedded in the braggadocio. Trump stated, "Removing whatever of these measures would hamstring our workers, endanger our country and cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year" — knowing that the president-elect has called for the removal of many of these unilateral measures. Trump further warned, "Nosotros can't permit the next assistants fifty-fifty think about taking it (the wall) down."

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Among hardcore Trump supporters who consider the wall a pillar of the MAGA agenda, these veiled warnings could be interpreted as further reason to block a peaceful transfer of power. Given Biden'southward promise to immediately halt construction on the wall, Trump'south statements to Border Patrol agents could also incite disobedience. Virtually Americans oppose the wall, but Border Patrol union leaders support it and claim that a fractional survey shows union members do, likewise.

Mobilization in defence force of the wall would be a disaster. Trump'south wall has been an ineffective farce, designed to foment detest bearded as security. Information technology has already toll the nation far besides much — in resources, division and human lives. The state faces a wellness security threat that requires prioritizing resources to relieve lives. An immediate halt to the corruption, waste matter and deception of the edge wall is a welcome and necessary pace to a safer nation.

Laura Carlsen is managing director of the Americas Policy Program, an independent international think tank based in Mexico City. Follow her on Twitter: @lauraecarlsen