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President Donald Trump praised DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for moving to paint the entire southern border wall black, saying it will increase the wall’s effectiveness, making it “untouchable” for would-be illegal immigrants.
Speaking to the press in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said, “I didn’t know she was listening” when he suggested the wall should be black.
“So, I turn on last night and I see Kristi is painting the wall and it looked beautiful, by the way, when that paint went on, it’s beautiful,” he said, adding, “It’s hot, if it’s white, it’s not hot. If it’s black, it’s going to be very hard to climb that sucker.”
The president also touted the wall’s quality, saying, “I built the same wall that the Border Patrol asked me to build,” consisting of high-grade steel, reinforced with thick rebar and 9,000-pound concrete.
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Noem announced on Tuesday that the entire southern border wall will be painted black as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to increase the effectiveness of the wall as a deterrent.
Speaking in front of a portion of the southern border wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, Noem explained that the wall would be painted entirely black for the dual purposes of making it heat up more and thus harder to climb, as well as preserving the metal from rust.
Noem credited the “one big, beautiful bill” that was passed by Congress in July for allocating “an incredible amount of resources” that she said is “going to allow us to continue construction” of the wall, which she said is advancing at a pace of about half a mile of new wall per day.
The secretary explained that the new paintwork comes “specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black, it gets even warmer, and it will make it even harder for people to climb.”
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“So, we are going to be painting the entire southern border wall black to make sure that we encourage individuals to not come into our country illegally, to not break our federal laws, but that they will abide and come to our country the right way so that they can stay and have the opportunity to become United States citizens and pursue the American dream,” said Noem.
Speaking in the White House on Friday, Trump recalled the moment he told Noem, “We got to get a coat of paint on it.”
“And I didn’t know she was listening, but I said, we got to get a coat of paint, and it should be black because black makes the steel very hot. It’s untouchable,” he explained. “You could fry an egg on it, and if you got a good, black, flat paint, it would look beautiful, and it will preserve it from rust. And that was it, and I gave it to her along with 30 other things.”
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Turning to Noem, who was in the room beside him, Trump asked, “Is that going to be a two-coat job or one coat?” to which the secretary answered, “Just one coat.”
The president quipped back, “The two-coat [job] will take place in three years from now, we’ll do the second.”
“But it looks beautiful,” he continued. “But thank you very much. I didn’t know you were listening. Like, we talked about seven different subjects. And all of a sudden, I see you’re out there painting with a lot of painters and everything else, but it was a beautiful thing to see.”
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