Even for Donald Trump, this is pretty embarrassing. Yesterday, he tweeted pictures of a fence being built in southern California and wrote that this was the “start of our southern border WALL!”
Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL! pic.twitter.com/pmCNoxxlkH
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018
Not so fast. The pictures were actually of a repair project for a fence along the California-Mexico border that was authorized during the Obama administration. Nonetheless, today Trump was still talking, mistakingly, about the fence-mend at a speech in Ohio.
“We started building our wall. I’m so proud of it,” he said.
“People said, ‘Oh has he given up on the wall?’ No, I never give up. We have 1.6 billion [dollars] toward the wall,” Trump said.
“And you saw those beautiful pictures and the wall looks good. It’s properly designed,” he continued. “That’s what I do is I build. I was always very good at building. It was always my best thing. I think better than being president I was maybe good at building. Like you people, you’re good at building.”
Busted: Trump tweeted photos of a "southern border wall" being constructed but it was actually a fence repair ordered by Obama: pic.twitter.com/wphKOuNMLN
— The Beat with Ari Melber 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) March 29, 2018
Keeping Them Honest: President Trump tweets photos and says new border wall construction has "started." It hasn't https://t.co/URzgCqicom pic.twitter.com/uTs9ankmUB
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 30, 2018
Trump was reportedly furious that Congress allocated so little for the construction of the wall in the budget bill he signed earlier this week. The President has even gone to the Pentagon asking to divert money from the military to build the wall. His base is grumbling–more loudly every day–that Trump’s signature campaign promise remains unmet.