The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration has awarded the largest-yet contract for building the border wall — a $1.3 billion award to Fisher Sand & Gravel, owned by Fox News-appearing, Trump-praising, GOP donor Tommy Fisher.
As Nick Miroff writes in the Post, “The new award to Fisher carries an average cost of more than $30 million per mile of border barrier, more expensive than other contracts for Trump’s wall. The project has morphed from a 2016 campaign promise into one of the largest federal infrastructure projects in U.S. history … Swelling the price tag further was a design change from the president requiring the barrier to be painted black, adding about $1.2 million per mile.”
The following is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
In the middle of the greatest crisis of our lifetime, the President of the United States is obsessed with building a stupid and ineffective border wall. He does so because his priority is himself and his reelection, not the health and well-being of the American people.
At a time when Americans are haunted by infection and death, when testing and treatment in America is insufficient to safely reopen the economy, when millions of Americans are out of work and running out of money, and when first responders, healthcare workers and essential workers are risking their lives to save ours, Trump is focused on fulfilling a campaign promise in time for the 2020 election.
Who is paying for the wall? American taxpayers, not Mexico. Since Congress refused to fund the $18 billion being spent on the wall, where are the funds coming from? Raided funds appropriated by Congress to support National Guard readiness and military families. Who is getting the big contracts to build the wall contracts? Trump cronies. Besides shoveling billions into the pockets of donors, what is Trump’s focus with respect to the wall? Spending millions more to paint it black. Is the wall worth diverting public funds and seizing land from private landowners? Smugglers have proved adept at sawing through and climbing over the wall using saws and rope ladders available at the local Home Depot.
Any other president would be all-consumed with forging unity and protecting lives during a lethal pandemic. Trump is all-consumed with a monument to his vanity and a showpiece for his reelection campaign.
The border wall is emblematic of Trump and his failed presidency: divisive, distracting, narcissistic, mendacious, corrupt, racist, authoritarian, and ineffective. Trump is America’s Nero.
