Trump will never be able to build a border wall stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean using emergency funding, but contracts to build small sections of barrier may be awarded to companies that Trump is personally lobbying for.
According to sources who spoke to the Washington Post, Trump has personally lobbied for one such firm because he's seen their company representatives on Fox News.
President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.
In phone calls, White House meetings and conversations aboard Air Force One during the past several months, Trump has aggressively pushed Dickinson, N.D.-based Fisher Industries to Department of Homeland Security leaders and Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Army Corps, according to the administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions. The push for a specific company has alarmed military commanders and DHS officials.
Get a load of this shit:
Trump has latched on to the company’s public claims that a new weathered steel design and innovative construction method would vastly speed up the project — and deliver it at far less cost to taxpayers. White House officials said Trump wants to go with the best and most cost-effective option to build the wall quickly.
“The President is one of the country’s most successful builders and knows better than anyone how to negotiate the best deals,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in an email. “He wants to make sure we get the job done under budget and ahead of schedule.”
In other words, Trump is watching Fox News as if it were the Home Shopping Network, but for glorified steel fencing.
There's so much going on here I hardly know where to begin.
There's Trump's corruption of federal contracts which could and probably will be challenged in court. There's Trump's reliance on the word of public relationships flacks appearing on Fox News where they know they're speaking to an audience of one. There's Sarah Sanders' claims about her boss which don't even pass the laugh test.
It feels safe to assume that whatever is constructed under Trump's watch will devolve into a dilapidated pile of shit within years if it's not removed entirely by future administrations.
Everything Trump touches turns to shit.