President Trump wants a border wall, and he wants it painted black.
Channeling his inner Lil Nas X, Trump had a section of border wall painted "matte black" in June, and he reportedly wants to continue the trend along another 175 miles of fencing. It'll cost an additional $70–133 million to make that happen, and it's far from the only specific demand Trump has for his long-awaited border wall, The Washington Post reports.
The 2020 presidential race is heating up, but Trump has yet to deliver on his 2016 promise to build a wall across the southern border of the U.S. So in an attempt to complete 500 miles of the wall in the next year, Defense Secretary Mark Esper is expected to let the White House use $3.6 billion in department funding originally slated for other projects, administration officials tell the Post.
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Yet even in this rush, Trump hasn't let his aesthetic demands fall by the wayside. One mile of the wall was painted matte black so it would be more hot and slippery to ward off climbers, and Trump is demanding it all be painted the same color, border agents tell the Post. And even though the top of that current one-mile span is covered with smooth metal plates, Trump wants those "unsightly" climbing deterrents removed in favor of spiked steel toppers, officials continue. Trump also wants to implement eminent domain laws to seize land from owners along the border unwilling to sell, though an administration official said they'd rather negotiate with landowners and pay them a "fair market value" instead.
Read more about how Trump is co-opting Mordor's aesthetics at The Washington Post.
