Stephen Bannon's self-funded border wall is officially a bust, and butterflies couldn't be happier.
That's because the National Butterfly Center, a nonprofit preserve for the colorful bugs, runs right up against the U.S.-Mexico border and is threatened by President Trump's wall. The center has vehemently opposed the wall for years, and couldn't resist dunking on Bannon on Thursday when his attempt to build the wall himself ended with fraud charges.
Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist and an immigration hardliner, was arrested Thursday along with Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They were all running a GoFundMe to raise $25 million to build a border wall, but allegedly sifted money off the campaign to fund their own livelihoods.
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The National Butterfly Center, whose Twitter feed is entirely dedicated to showcasing erosion of the private border wall that has been built, wasted no time declaring victory after the charges were announced.
The charges could land Bannon and his colleagues up to 20 years in jail — and they should hope the butterfly center doesn't have a say in their sentencing. Kathryn Krawczyk
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