President Trump said on Monday that he “NEVER ABANDONED” plans to build a concrete wall along the southern border, contradicting comments made by members of his administration – including himself.
“An all concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED, as has been reported by the media. 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 wrote on his Twitter account.
The posting comes a day after outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly said the president decided against erecting a concrete wall a while ago.
“To be honest, it’s not a wall,” Kelly told the Los Angeles Times in an interview that was published Sunday.
“The president still says ‘wall’ — oftentimes frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing,’ now he’s tended toward steel slats,” he added. “But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.”
Kelly, who is leaving the administration on Wednesday, said Customs and Border Patrol officials told him when he served as Homeland Security secretary that along with a physical barrier, they needed increased technology and more agents.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said the argument over a physical barrier on the Mexican border, which has created a stalemate between congressional Democrats and the White House leading to a partial government shutdown, is just a distraction from the larger issue of border security.
“It is a silly semantic argument because people who just want to say ‘wall, wall, wall’ want it to be a four-letter word and not respect what Customs and Border Patrol and ICE tell us they need, which is enhancements at the border,” Conway said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
“There may be a wall at some places, there may be steel slats, there may be technological enhancements,” Conway said. “But always saying ‘wall’ or ‘no wall’ is being very disingenuous and turning a complete blind eye to what is a crisis at the border when it comes to the drugs pouring in.”
As recently as Dec. 18, Trump, who campaigned on building a “big, beautiful wall” that Mexico will pay for, insisted on a concrete wall.
“The Democrats, are saying loud and clear that they do not want to build a Concrete Wall – but we are not building a Concrete Wall, we are building artistically designed steel slats, so that you can easily see through it,” Trump wrote on Twitter.