Trump's 'steel slat' border wall can be cut with a saw

Steel slat border wall.
(Image credit: HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump is slowly running out of border wall options.

Last month, Trump ditched his "beautiful" concrete wall in favor of some "artistically designed steel slats." And now it seems that idea may have to go, as a Department of Homeland Security test revealed the slats can be cut through with a saw, NBC News reports.

In late 2017, DHS tasked Marines with testing eight border wall prototypes, per a Customs and Border Protection report obtained by NBC News. All eight of the prototypes "were vulnerable to breaching," the report concluded. That includes the slats, which a photo shows could be sawed through to make an opening that's definitely big enough to crawl through.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
See more

Trump didn't tour the tested walls, but rather a set of eight prototypes that were bigger than what was a tested, San Diego Sector Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told NBC News. The prototypes "were not and cannot be designed to be indestructible," a CBP spokesperson added. That may come as a surprise to Trump, who has long promised to build an "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful" wall.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.