Shortly before leaving the White House, Chief of Staff John Kelly has once again entered the discussion on the wall on the Mexican border demanded by US President Donald Trump. "To be honest, it's not a wall," Kelly said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "The president still says 'wall', sometimes just saying 'barrier' or 'fence', now he's leaning towards iron bars."
However, the idea of a solid concrete wall had been given up early by the government after talking with border guards about their needs, added Kelly, who resigned his post at the turn of the year. The border guards had demanded "fixed barriers in some places", but above all more personnel and technical means.
"Stupid semantic debate"
At the beginning of December, Trump announced that he would dismiss Kelly as chief of staff in the presidential office at the end of the year. The 68-year-old had fallen out with the president. Trump wants to make his former budget director Mick Mulvaney the interim chief of staff in the White House. The new Chief of Staff will be the third in two years.
REUTERS
Donald Trump, John Kelly
Trump had announced the construction of the wall in the election campaign and said he wanted to fight in this way illegal immigration and crime. The dispute over the wall is currently also at the center of the US budget dispute. Opposition Democrats are firmly opposed to Trump's billions in building a wall on the Mexican border, which has already resulted in a budget freeze and stalemate in numerous federal agencies.
Presidential Adviser Kellyanne Conway dismissed the question of whether it was a "wall" or not, as a "stupid semantic debate". On Fox television, she said on Sunday that customs and border officials needed "better technology, fixed barriers and iron bars," Trump said, both verbally and in the short message service Twitter.