“We the People Will Fund the Wall” started by Brian Kolfage, a triple-amputee veteran, aims to raise $1 billion toward the construction of a wall. Kolfage, a married father-of-two lost both legs and his right arm in a 2004 insurgent attack in Iraq.
The fundraising page says it has contacted the Trump Administration already, and added that “many very high level contacts” were helping the campaign.
“It’s up to Americans to help out and pitch in to get this project rolling. If the 63million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall.”
Kolfage is a Purple Heart recipient. “As a veteran who has given so much, 3 limbs, I feel deeply invested to this nation to ensure future generations have everything we have today,” the page reads.
On Wednesday, a counter-campaign to raise money to buy ladders to climb over the wall was started by a transgender leftist, Charlotte Clymer. But the effort has raised only $137,000 of a $100 million goal.
Democrats have mocked the GoFundMe as evidence of Trump supporters’ stupidity, saying that federal funding for Trump’s signature proposal is looking increasingly less likely.
On Tuesday it was reported that the US will increase aid to Mexico and Central America to $10.6 billion.
Money raised by private sources may not be given for a specific government project, as Americans are able to donate money to the US Treasury but not to individual departments like Homeland Security.
Kolfage says he has been in contact with the White House about the transfer of funds to the right Department, but has not received a response yet.
More than 266 000 people have already donated to the campaign. Meanwhile politicians in Washington maintain that the building of a wall has no public backing.
The impasse over government spending continued on Monday, with President Trump insisting that funds for border security would be wasted if a border wall is not constructed.
Following a government shutdown because of Trump’s demands for border wall funding, the president slammed Democrats for refusing the funding.
The Republican-led House passed a stopgap spending bill last week for $5 billion, but it was voted down in the Senate. Trump blamed Democrats for refusing to give him the votes needed to approve the bill that includes the $5.7 billion he wants for the wall.
Trump excused federal employees from work on Monday for Christmas. That means that the public could feel the government’s shutdown effects on Wednesday. Some 800 000 federal workers must either work without pay for the time being, or stay home and wait to be paid later.
