An agent of the border patrol, observes near the Mexico-US border fence, on the Mexican side, separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, on January 25. CREDIT: AP Photo/Christian Torres.
The projected cost for President Donald Trump’s border wall continues to rise, and Trump has no good plan to contain it.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that the border wall will be much more expensive than the $10 billion figure Trump repeatedly cited during his campaign or the $12–$15 billion cited by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) last month.
“Trump’s ‘wall’ along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct,” Reuters reported, citing a U.S. Department of Homeland Security document the outlet obtained.
And it could end up costing even more than that.
“Bernstein Research, an investment research group that tracks material costs, has said that uncertainties around the project could drive its cost up to as much as $25 billion,” Reuters reports.
On Saturday morning, Trump responded to that news by assuring Americans that costs of constructing the wall will come “WAY DOWN” as soon as he gets involved in the negotiations.
<Tweets snipped.>
But Trump’s citation of the reduced cost of F-35s should give no one confidence he’ll be able to bring down the exorbitant cost of his border wall.
That’s because on January 30, Trump took credit for cost cuts to the fighter jets that were already put in place before he got involved. A Washington Post fact-check gave Trump’s claim that he was responsible for cutting $600 million from the F-35 program “Four Pinocchios.”
[…]
Trump has repeatedly taken credit for deals that were in the works long before he won the election or became president. For instance, he’s overstated his role in deals with Intel, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, and Sprint to take credit for saving American jobs.
[…]
Last year, Reuters reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents don’t think the type of border wall Trump has long supported is necessary for national security. Instead, they seek better equipment and technology.
Not only is this wall idea the epitome of idiocy, people tend to forget a different cost of such idiocy – the high cost imposed on animals, the environment, and various ecologies. This sort of arrogant assholery is little more than a chest-pounding display of cruelty, a game for bully boys. Unfortunately, such people don’t much give a shit about the planet which gives them life, or the diversity of life on our earth, which has no use for the concrete idiocy of naked apes intent on warring with their neighbours. You can read a bit about this high cost here.
Full story at Think Progress.
So no Ikea.
No, unfortunately not. I really wish someone would show that Ikea piece to Trump, stripping any reference to it being satire. He’d probably go for it.
This may actually turn into a case of architectural vaporware. Trump can’t just sign off on an executive order to overrule physical, financial, and logistical impossibility.
If it isn’t actually possible to build the wall, that makes it all the more attractive for the Angry Cheeto. He’s going to be skimming cash off of the job as long as it’s being worked on, right? If the job can’t be completed, it can never end! Infinite graft!
Trump can’t just sign off on an executive order to overrule physical, financial, and logistical impossibility.
Sez who? He is a manager. American manager. A CEO at that.
If I learned anything at US company, then that is that laws, even laws of physics, do not apply to managerial decisions. Something as meager as science only counts if it agrees with preconcieved notions. If a manager says you to do something, you must do it at half the projected cost. And only losers say things like “it is not possible” or “I need more personell” or even “I need higher budget to do that”.
That is one of the reasons why I will neer be a manager, but I have seen many an incompetent idiot progress and make a good career. When they accidentaly get involved in good decisions, they take all the credit for themselves. When they make bad decisions, they always try and spin it as good and if that does not work out, they find out how to make other people’s heads roll. And in the rare instance when they get the sack, they find quickly a new company to parasite on.
Trump has already shown he will gladly take kredit for other people’s work, there is no doubt he will sack people left and right if things do not work out. Only he stil did not realize he does not have the third option -- after (not if) he destroys US democracy and starts recession, there will not be another state to run and suck off.
You can always borrow money. And as for labour, hey, there’s prisons full of people doing nothing with themselves. You don’t even have to pay them the same as everyone else!
So yeah, he can sign anything he wants -- implementation will be a disaster, and costs will rise (as will labour, time, etc.). But the order will be there.
And then when it fails, it will be because the dirty liberals indermined the project.
Er, undermined.