President Donald Trump said he was kidding when he spoke about building a border wall in Colorado, a state that does not sit along the U.S.-Mexico border.
While speaking Wednesday at a shale conference in Pittsburgh, Trump touched on the subject of immigration, and added that his administration was “building a wall in Colorado.” The comment attracted confusion from the public, given Colorado is not a border state. The president, however, later clarified that he was joking.
“(Kiddingly) We’re building a Wall in Colorado”(then stated, “we’re not building a Wall in Kansas but they get the benefit of the Wall we’re building on the Border”) referred to people in the very packed auditorium, from Colorado & Kansas, getting the benefit of the Border Wall!” Trump tweeted earlier Thursday morning.
The tweet came after Trump addressed an audience at the annual Shale Insight Conference, which apparently included members from Kansas and Colorado.
People work on the U.S./ Mexican border wall on February 12, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. U.S. President Donald Trump visited the border city yesterday as he continues to campaign for more wall to be built along the border. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“And we’re building a wall on the border of New Mexico and we’re building a wall in Colorado, we’re building a beautiful wall, a big one that really works that you can’t get over, you can’t get under and we’re building a wall in Texas. We’re not building a wall in Kansas, but they get the benefit of the walls we just mentioned,” Trump said during the conference.
The comments attracted a response from Gov. Jared Polis and Sen. Michael Bennet, both of whom are Colorado Democrats, along with other Twitter reactions.
Completing a wall between the U.S. and Mexico is Trump’s signature campaign goal, and something his administration is working toward before the next presidential election.
The White House has built 71 miles of “new” barrier on the southern border since Trump entered office, acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan told reporters earlier in October. That number, however, is just a fraction of what the administration wants to complete by the end of Trump’s first term. The CBP chief said the administration aims to complete roughly 450 miles of new border wall by the end of 2020. (RELATED: CBP Doles Out Contracts To Build Up To 65 Miles Of Border Wall)
While Morgan touted the “71 miles of new wall” during his White House press briefing, there remains a discrepancy on what “new wall” actually means. The 71 miles of new wall replaced barriers that were already in place on the border, but Morgan made clear that the old walls were mostly vehicle barriers that stood just a few feet high and were easily passable by immigrants on foot.
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