President-elect Donald Trump demanded Monday that President Biden stop his administration from selling off portions of the southern border wall, ripping the retiring commander-in-chief for his “almost criminal act.”
“I’m asking today, Joe Biden to please stop selling the wall. We’re going to use that to create a strong barrier,” Trump said during his remarks to the press at Mar-a-Lago.
“It’s very expensive, and now it’s about double the price of what it would have been six years ago, and the administration is trying to sell it for five cents on the dollar, knowing that we’re getting ready to put it up,” Trump went on.
The Biden administration is selling off unused portions of the southern border wall, the Daily Wire reported last week, with video footage showing trucks hauling away slabs of border wall south of Tucson, Ariz., at a spot where many migrants have entered illegally.
“They are taking it from three stations: Nogales, Tucson, and Three Points,” a Border Patrol agent told the outlet. “The goal is to move all of it off the border before Christmas.”
Portions of the wall are also apparently being sold on GovPlanet, an online auction house specializing in military surplus, with bidding starting at just $5. The Post previously reported that auctioning of border parts has been happening since at least April.
“They know we’re going to use it, and if we don’t have it, we’re going to have to rebuild it, and it will cost double what it cost years ago, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars,” Trump said of the alarming move.
The incoming president slammed the Biden administration for not participating in a “smooth transition” with such an unprecedented move and vowed, “We can’t let this take place.”
“I spoke with the attorney general of Texas [Ken Paxton], I spoke to the senators of Texas. I spoke to a lot of people, and hopefully they’ll be able to stop,” he said, noting they will mandate a “restraining order.”
“This is just people that don’t want this country to succeed, and this has nothing to do with Democrat or Republican. This has to do with common sense,” Trump went on. “We won on common sense, and this is maybe one of the most egregious examples I’ve seen.”
Biden issued an executive order in his first days in office to halt building the border wall — but later changed his tune and waived environmental reviews in order to construct sections in Texas.
Congressional Republicans have been sounding the alarm about the political nature of the Biden administration selling the border wall portions, with Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) telling the Daily Wire, “If it’s true, they’re purposefully hamstringing an incoming president, it wouldn’t be shocking. Why would they want to see President Trump succeed with policies they aggressively sabotaged?”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
