Triple amputee US military veteran raises $2m of $1bn goal in just three days to build Trump's border wall

A crowdfunding campaign has been launch to help fund the construction of President Trump's border wall.
AP
Bonnie Christian20 December 2018

A crowdfunding campaign to raise $1 billion to build Donald Trump’s promised border wall has raised $2.3 million in four days.

An Iraq war vet and three limb amputee started the GoFundMe campaign in an effort to help fulfill the US president’s pledge to build a wall at the Mexican border.

Mr Trump appears likely to give up his last and best chance to secure $5 billion from Congress for the "beautiful" wall he's long promised to construct, as he backed away from his threat to partially shut down the government on Friday.

Conservatives who are fed up with his never-ending campaign have dug deep in an attempt to fund the wall themselves.

The unfulfilled pledge also threatens to hang over his re-election campaign, potentially depressing his base and dealing his political rivals a powerful talking point.

"I thought if you're going to have a fight, now's the time to have it," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the president who warned that it's only going to get more difficult to get the money when Democrats take over.

Migrants attempt to cross into the US
EPA

Radio host Rush Limbaugh said: “Trump should not sign this bill and leave for Mar-a-Lago, and tell them it's not gonna get signed and their precious government's not gonna get back up and running `til there's $5 billion”

Media editor of The Wrap, John Levine tweeted: “This GoFundMe should be proof that the wall was not some "metaphor" for Trump's base; failure to deliver on this promise will have dire consequences in 2020.”

Meanwhile, liberals mocked the campaign, as one Twitter user quipped: “We’re gonna build the wall and gofundme is gonna pay for it”

Florida air force veteran Brian Kolfage, 27, launched the fundraising campaign on Sunday under the title “We the people will fund the wall.”

By Thursday, it had amassed nearly $2.4million in donations.

Like a majority of those American citizens who voted to elect President Donald J Trump, we voted for him to Make America Great Again,” he writes on the page.

“President Trump’s main campaign promise was to BUILD THE WALL. And as he’s followed through on just about every promise so far, this wall project needs to be completed still.”

Mr Kolfage is a married father of two who lost both legs and his right arm in a 2004 insurgent attack in Iraq.

He said: “Too many Americans have been murdered by illegal aliens and too many illegals are taking advantage of the United States taxpayers with no means of ever contributing to our society.”

“It's up to Americans to help out and pitch in to get this project rolling,' Mr Kolfage writes. “If the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall.”

According to the GoFundMe page, Mr Kolfage has secured a a point of contact at the Trump Administration where the funds will go and adds it has “many high level contacts already helping.”

Mr Trump had originally demanded $5 billion to begin building the wall this year, but the White House acknowledged this week that he is willing to settle for far less.

The temporary measure offers just $1.3 billion for border security fencing and other improvements. That money cannot be used for new wall construction.

It comes as an announcement was made on Tuesday that the US will increase aid to Mexico and Central America to $10.6 billion.

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