Friday, July 23, 2021

ASK TRUMP.ORG FOR IT
Man Who Spent $30 Million On Trump's Mexico Wall Is Looking For Buyers

Anish Vij
Published  23 July 2021


A man who spent $30 million (£22 million) on building Donald Trump's wall is looking to sell.

As reported by Bloomberg, Tommy Fisher, 51, was the man responsible for constructing a three-mile barrier made up of 15,000 18-foot-tall steel bollards layered out across the Mexico/US border along the Rio Grande river near Mission, Texas.

In 2019, the 51-year-old's North Dakota company, Fisher Industries, received $6.9 million (£5 million) to build a half-mile of the wall from We Build the Wall (WBTW), the organisation that was responsible for sourcing funds for construction

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Tommy Fisher's border wall runs along the Rio Grande river near Mission, Texas. Credit: Eric Gay/AP/Shutterstock

The crowd sourcing company was founded by former US veteran Brian Kolfage and co-led by former White House strategist Steve Bannon.


Later on that same year, Fisher started to add another section to the wall and received an extra $1.5 million from Kolfage and Bannon.

However, Fisher was forced to part ways with the pair, who were later indicted for wire fraud, having being accused of diverting $1.3 million (£945k) of the donations for the border wall for their own personal use.

Both men pleaded not guilty. Bannon received a pardon from Trump in his final days as President, while Kolfage is set to appear in court in November.

For Fisher, costs for building the wall shot up to $30 million (£22 million) - 20 times more than original estimates

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The wall cost a staggering $30 million. Credit: Eric Gay/AP/Shutterstock

Last year, the National Butterfly Center, a non-profit conservation organisation, sued WBTW and Fisher Industries, with environmentalists and the opposition were protesting against the construction as they believed that it was being built too close to the river and could lead to worse flooding.

The increase in value and change in presidency has left the infamous wall looking like a tough sell.

After winning the election, US President Joe Biden halted the building of Trump's wall, despite reports of the President considering restarting work on the wall in April.

Credit: PA
Last month, Biden returned $2.2 billion (£16 million) to the military forces that were allocated to building the barrier.


Initially, Fisher was really excited about the project and told Fox News: "I was like, 'This would be really fun. This would be a project that would be remembered, like the Hoover Dam."

He was hoping that his project would be the 'Lamborghini' of walls and someone would come in to buy it - and ideally pay him to extend it, with Fisher looking to charge $20 million per mile.

He told Bloomberg: "I just think they gotta take the stigma out of the wall as a racist kind of thing?

"It's a border, it's a barrier, that's all it means.

"Can you imagine if this was 50 to 100 miles, and this was a bike path you could use? Even if the Border Patrol was over here, minding their own business?"

Featured Image Credit: Fox News

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