Donald Trump reportedly wants his ‘Border Wall’ painted black and with spiky spikes.
Before Donald Trump became president, he is reported to have spent much of his time reviewing color swatches for hotel carpeting and the like, according to one of the writers who worked closely with him in decades gone by. Swatches of velour for lobby seating was more in his comfort zone, the writer says.
I hear echoes of this character oddity in today’s report on Trump’s seeming obsession with the goth brutalist aesthetics of his “Border Wall” by Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post:
The bollards or “slats,” as he prefers to call them, should be painted “flat black,” a dark hue that would absorb heat in the summer, making the metal too hot for climbers to scale, Trump has recently told White House aides, Homeland Security officials and military engineers.
And the tips of the bollards should be pointed, not round, the president insists, describing in graphic terms the potential injuries that border-crossers might receive. Trump has said the wall’s current blueprints include too many gates — placed at periodic intervals to allow vehicles and people through — and he wants the openings to be smaller.
At a moment when the White House is diverting billions of dollars in military funds to fast-track construction, the president is micromanaging the project down to the smallest design details. But Trump’s frequently shifting instructions and suggestions have left engineers and aides confused, according to current and former administration officials.
Trump also has repeatedly summoned the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, to impart his views on the barrier’s properties, demanding that the structure be physically imposing but also aesthetically pleasing.
“He thinks it’s ugly,” said one administration official familiar with Trump’s opinions, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being fired.
It should, as the president always says, be a beautiful wall. A beautiful brutalist wall.
What a nutcase.
Trump wants his border barrier to be painted black with spikes. He has other ideas, too.
[SCREENGRAB from a recent Trump rally in May, 2019, in front of Sempra Energy workers in Louisiana.]