Trump heaped praise on a section of barrier that was actually built by Obama.
MONTEZUMA PASS, Ariz. — A brown ribbon carved a straight gash across a vast, flat desert basin, the only mark of human civilization visible on this wilderness. The partition charged up a steep hill in Montezuma Canyon, then suddenly stopped. Extra pieces lay in piles nearby, rusting monuments to an unfinished campaign promise.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump came here on Thursday to heap praise on the structure standing to his right — “the Rolls-Royce of walls,” he called it — and lament the unused segments lying to his left. Joining him there, Border Patrol union leader Paul A. Perez called the standing fence “Trump wall” and the idle parts “Kamala wall,” after his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Those labels were inaccurate. This section of 20-foot steel slats was actually built during former president Barack Obama’s administration.
Trump added the unfinished extension up the hillside, an engineering challenge that cost at least $35 million a mile. The unused panels of 30-foot beams were procured during the Trump administration and never erected.
“Where you were, that was kind of a joke today,” said John Ladd, a Trump supporter whose ranch extends along the border, explained while driving the dirt road along the barrier, the gapped panels making a flipbook out of the shrubby trees and grass on the other side.
“Had to be in front of Trump’s wall, but you went to Montezuma, and that’s Obama’s wall.”
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/25/trump-event-wall-obama-built-highlights-an-unkept-promise/
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