President Donald Trump insisted Monday the plans for an all-concrete border wall have never been abandoned, as outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly said over the weekend.
"An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media," Trump tweeted. "Some areas will be all concrete but the experts at Border Patrol prefer a Wall that is see through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides). Makes sense to me!"
Trump's comments come on the heels of an interview published Sunday in the L.A. Times, in which Kelly said the administration long ago abandoned the idea of an actual concrete wall. Trump avoided mentioning Kelly by name, focusing instead on "the media" that reported the comments.
"To be honest, it's not a wall," Kelly said. "The president still says 'wall' — oftentimes frankly he'll say 'barrier' or 'fencing,' now he's tended toward steel slats. But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it."
After taking a break to tweet about Syria, Trump returned to the subject of the border wall later Monday and urged Democrats to "fix" the problem:
"I campaigned on Border Security, which you cannot have without a strong and powerful Wall. Our Southern Border has long been an “Open Wound,” where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country. Dems should get back here an [sic] fix now!"
Trump referred in a Sunday tweet to reports about a privacy wall former President Barack Obama has had built around his Washington, D.C., home to further justify his call for a wall at the U.S. border.
"President and Mrs. Obama built/has a ten foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound," Trump wrote in the tweet. "I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The U.S. needs the same thing, slightly larger version!"
He slammed Democrats over the wall again a couple of hours later Monday:
"It's incredible how Democrats can all use their ridiculous sound bite and say that a Wall doesn't work. It does, and properly built, almost 100 percent! They say it's old technology – but so is the wheel. They now say it is immoral – but it is far more immoral for people to be dying!"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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