Trump made a trip to the US-Mexico border and falsely claimed his southern border wall had been just 2 months from completion
- Trump visited the southern border with Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Wednesday.
- Trump claimed in a speech that when he left office, the border wall had needed only final touches.
- The Trump administration finished building less than a quarter of the planned wall during his term.
Former President Donald Trump made a trip to the US-Mexico border on Wednesday and falsely claimed that he was almost done building the border wall when he left office.
Speaking at an unfinished section of the wall in Hidalgo County, Texas, Trump said he had been just months from completing the structure. He was visiting the border with Gov. Greg Abbott and 31 Republican lawmakers, Reuters reported.
"Within two months, everything could have been completed, not sitting there rotting and rusting. It would have been perfecto. It was all set," Trump said during a rambling 30-minute speech.
He also erroneously claimed during a press conference before his speech that the wall had lacked only some final touches.
"They were supposed to paint the wall. They aren't even doing that. They've got to get a coat of paint on the wall. Believe it or not, it does rust. Maybe that's what they like. Let it rust, let it rot," Trump added.
Apart from talking about the border, Trump ranted about the election results, saying that he'd done "such a good job" during his term that migration and border control "wasn't even a factor" in the election.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration had built less than a quarter of the 2,000-mile border wall he'd promised. According to The Times, the administration built only 450 miles of the wall during Trump's term, mostly in sections with existing barriers.
President Joe Biden stopped construction on the border wall on his first day in office.
Trump's outing on Wednesday followed Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to El Paso, Texas, last Friday. In Harris' first visit to the US's southern border since she was sworn in, she met with girls living at a US Customs and Border Protection facility.