Trump Critics Launch ‘Ladders To Get Over Border Wall’ GoFundMe
Building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, allegedly in an effort to curb illegal immigration, was one of Donald Trump’s key campaign promises. So far, the president has not delivered. Trump has repeatedly threatened a government shutdown, effectively blackmailing Congress to provide funding for the expensive border project.
Earlier today, the president posted a video to Twitter, calling on the Democratic Party to put the “safety” of the American people first, urging that border security becomes the “number one” priority for both parties. Trump continues to blame immigrants for crime, although research — a 2018 Cato Institute study, for instance — suggests that immigrants, both legal and illegal, commit fewer criminal acts than native-born Americans.
Reason, research, and facts have evidently not stopped Donald Trump from insisting on building a border wall, but an unwilling Congress is making the president’s mission vastly more complicated. This reluctance has prompted Trump supporters to take matters into their own hands.
On December 16, a man named Brian Kolfage started a GoFundMe campaign, urging the president’s supporters to donate money for the wall. “We The People Will Fund The Wall” has raised more than $8 million so far. According to CNN, Kolfage is a triple-amputee AirForce veteran and motivational speaker, who lost both of his legs and his right hand in Iraq. The campaign has a goal of $1 billion.
A GoFundMe campaign to pay for Trump's border wall has now raised over $7 million and is the 4th largest fundraiser on the site this yearhttps://t.co/l3zRFxtD8p
— POLITICO (@politico) December 20, 2018
But it did not take long for the other side to respond. Another GoFundMe campaign has been created, and it is meant to counter and ridicule “We The People Will Fund The Wall.” Now, another U.S. Army veteran, Charlotte Clymer, is raising money to buy ladders to get over Trump’s border wall, Business Insider reports.
“I’ve really been happy with how this has generated conversation on just the absurdity of the wall in general,” Clymer told the publication in a statement.
“Ladders to Get Over Trump’s Wall” GoFundMe page states the following.
“At a rate of $1.7 million daily, it would take their fund about 35 years to raise the $21.7 billion that Trump’s own Dept. of Homeland Security says would be needed to build said wall, we wanna make sure ladders are ready to send over to our undocumented friends and help them.”
If the campaigners fail to reach their goal, the funds will be donated to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), a non-profit organization which provides legal and other aid to immigrant families and refugees.
The “Ladders to Get Over Trump’s Wall” GoFundMe, the page states, is not actually about buying ladders to get over Donald Trump’s border wall, but about “lifting people up.”
