“Trump can’t paint over failure:” His relentless border wall obsession fits alongside the balcony and bible photo-ops
CNN reports that President Trump is pushing for 82 miles of the border wall in Texas to be painted black, at the cost of “an extra $1 million per mile.” The article adds, “During an Oval Office meeting last year, Trump told various government officials that he wanted the wall to be painted black and to include French-style doors.”
The piece additionally notes: “current and former agency officials argue the painted finish would have little effectiveness, saying it’s largely being done to placate the President … ‘The stated reasons for painting the wall black changed so much, the only thing that hasn’t changed is the President’s desire to paint it black,’ a former Homeland Security official told CNN.”
The news squares with last week’s Washington Post report that Trump was prepping a campaign photo op at the border wall later in October to commemorate the supposed completion of 400 miles of new border fencing. Like everything with Trump, it’s all driven by politics, symbolism, and photo ops.
The following is a statement from Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America’s Voice:
Trump has quite the closing argument to the American people – photo ops über alles.
But what’s $80 million in black paint when you’ve stolen $15 billion from U.S. taxpayers and the military to build the wall in the first place — trampling the Constitution, precious environmental sites and sacred and sovereign Native lands? Oh, and in the process, Trump is funneling billions in contracts to a crony whose wall construction work is falling into the Rio Grande.
Trump’s obsession with wall symbolism fits neatly alongside other monstrous examples of his recklessness: standing with the Bible in front of a church he’s never entered; having Secret Service drive him in a SUV around Walter Reed’s perimeter to waive at supporters; and waving and wheezing from the White House balcony as he endangers everyone around him. He doesn’t care about anything but his ego and the symbols that he thinks benefit him politically and make him look like a strongman.
Of course, for the rest of us, recklessly endangering the lives of everyone around him to stage photo ops and spending more than $80 million to paint the stupid border wall black because he likes the way it looks is an indictment of this man, his character and his presidency, not a reason to vote for him. No matter how much he tries, Trump can’t paint over failure.
