Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Trump Is Now Insisting That The Border Wall Be Painted Black, Potentially Costing Tax Payers $500 Million

Trump Is Now Insisting That The Border Wall Be Painted Black, Potentially Costing Tax Payers $500 Million
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump's pet project—his border wall—was a center point of his 2016 campaign.

His MAGA rallies featured chants of "build the wall" and promises that Mexico would pay for it.


Many of those 2016 campaign promises were not kept, but Trump remained adamant he get his 30 foot high wall—not a fence—no matter what. Trump ended up with bollard fencing—the design used by the previous administration after over $20 million was spent on wall prototypes that all failed in testing and proved to be as impractical as experts said they would be before the money was spent.

Mexico paid for neither the bollard fencing or the failed wall prototypes that the Trump administration eventually tore down and hauled away for another few million dollars.

Now Trump is demanding at least another $500 million be spent to paint his fence black according to The Washington Post.

The bollard fencing being used is already a dark color. The steel used has a 30-year service life and is weather resistant despite exposure to solar radiation and extreme temperature changes that occur in a desert environment. Painting it all black would increase the solar heat retention by less than 10 percent.

Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security officials believed they had talked the President out of the unnecessary paint job. With the majority of the funds for Trump's border fence being pulled from the Defense Department's budget cancelling numerous long awaited military construction projects like housing, schools and hospitals and security for United States' military bases in the USA and abroad, the Pentagon has been involved in the fencing contracts and project execution.

The original fencing plans left the black paint out of the project because experts from all departments deemed it unnecessary and a massive long term burden to maintain. While the unpainted fence would require no surface maintenance for 30 years, the painted fence would require almost constant costly touch ups.

An official involved in the border fence planning discussions said:

"POTUS has changed his mind and now wants the fence painted. We are modifying contracts to add."

Aides were reportedly told to seek input from North Dakota-based Fisher Sand and Gravel. Fisher S&G's $400 million contract to build a section of new fencing in Arizona is under review by the Department of Defense inspector general for violating federal contract award laws.

Painting estimates that federal contracting officials produced show costs ranging from $500 million for two coats of acrylic paint to more than $3 billion for a premium "powder coating" according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Trump has been talking about a black fence since 2018.

He believes only a black fence will work because of personal experience. The President shared a story about one of his golf clubs and a snack shop with a black granite countertop. When his group of golfing partners ordered food and drinks the countertop was so hot it momentarily burned their arms.

Because of this golf club hot dog stand, the President thinks the $500 million to $3 billion dollar black fence paint will make his fence impossible to climb despite experts telling him otherwise.

Rick Duncan, a materials engineer who works for trade associations and specializes in rooftop coatings said:

"It won't make much of a difference. There's no technical reason to paint it to make it hotter."

He also pointed out black paint will fade to pale grey in the sun and actually be less effective than the dark color that the bare metal already has, meaning a painted fence will need to be repainted often to ensure it isn't less effective.


Trump pulled about $15 billion for his pet project so far with two-thirds diverted from Defense Department construction funds and counternarcotics programs. Of the 1,954 miles of the US Mexico border, Customs and Border Patrol estimates the money will pay for only 731 miles of new barriers without any paint.

And going back to paint what is already done presents more challenges.

Ed Zarenski, a retired construction cost estimator in Massachusetts who worked on large public works projects told The Washington Post:

"Painting it before it's installed would be cheaper. Otherwise you'll have to run a bucket truck on both sides of the barrier."

This presents another issue as the fencing was placed with only a small strip of land on the Mexican side. Crews would either need permission from the government of Mexico to perform painting operations on Mexican soil or crew would have to use a specialized boom long enough to extend up and over the barrier from the United States' side.

When Trump had a section of new barrier in California painted black last year the cost was about $1 million per mile with United States military troops providing the labor. Paying workers to do the job would increase costs further.

The cheapest paint option would cost an additional $1.2 million per mile in labor costs for two coats of acrylic paint on top of the paint and equipment costs.

Other paint options range from an additional $4.5 million to $6.8 million per mile.

Just as the experts noted with Trump's promised border wall, no part of the painting plan is efficient, necessary or effective.

This shirt is available here.

Amazon

More from News

J.K. Rowling
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

JK Rowling Slammed After Claiming That 'There Are No Trans Kids' In Hateful Rant

Famed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was criticized after she took to X to claim that "there are no trans kids" before blaming the adults in their lives.

Rowling has repeatedly come under fire for her anti-transgender views and their inclusion in her writing. Her responses to proposed changes to gender recognition laws in the United Kingdom have also drawn public backlash.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tom Holland

Tom Holland

Lionel Hahn/Contributor/Getty Images

Tom Holland Hilariously Reveals How He Broke Up A Fight At A Whole Foods In L.A.

Ever since he almost literally swung onto the scene at the age of 20 as the iconic Spider-Man in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland instantly became one of the world's favorite superheroes.

He further established himself after headlining three Spider-Man films of his own: 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home and 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, where he memorably shared the screen with Hollywood's two previous "Spidey"s, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

Keep ReadingShow less
Millie Bobby Brown
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Millie Bobby Brown Bluntly Rips Trolls After New Selfie Is Met With Looks-Shaming Comments

Newsflash: Millie Bobby Brown is not a child anymore! and she

The Stranger Things and Enola Holmes star, who is now 20, refuses to apologize to people who try to shame her for growing up. She recently clapped back at such comments on a recent mirror selfie of hers.

Keep ReadingShow less
Elon Musk
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Elon Musk Slammed For The Timing Of His Announced 'Algorithm Tweak' To X

Billionaire Elon Musk was criticized for the timing of his announced "algorithm tweak" to X that he characterized as an effort to boost more "informational/entertaining" content on the platform.

He wrote:

Keep ReadingShow less
Rihanna
Cindy Ord/WireImage/GettyImages

Rihanna Hilariously Claps Back After Troll Demanding New Album Calls Her 'Forehead'

R&B superstar Rihanna fired back at a troll who went too far in demanding she release a new album.

The "Love On the Brain" singer's eighth and most recent studio album was 2016's Anti, which she started recording in 2014.

Keep ReadingShow less