Trump Touts Border Wall In San Antonio, Which Has No Wall And Isn't On The Border

The city is 150 miles north of Mexico.

President Donald Trump on Saturday boasted to reporters about how well San Antonio’s border wall is working. But the Texas city is 150 miles from the Mexican border and has no wall.

“Everybody knows that walls work. You look at different places, they put up a wall, no problem,” Trump said outside the White House. “You look at San Antonio, you look at so many different places, they go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities, immediately, immediately.”

The president may have intended to refer to El Paso, a Texas border city he referenced last week in an almost identical anecdote ― though he is wrong that the wall there had any effect on its crime rate.

Trump discussed the nonexistent wall in San Antonio before he offered three years’ protection for the so-called Dreamers — immigrants who came to the U.S. as children — in exchange for Democratic support for $5.7 billion for his border wall. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) quickly ripped the deal as a “non-starter.”

Part of San Antonio is in the district represented by Texas GOP Rep. Will Hurd, who opposes Trump’s wall as expensive, ineffective and damaging to private property and the environment. His district includes 820 miles of the border. In an interview this week with Rolling Stone, he called Trump’s characterization of a “crisis” at the border a “myth.”

All nine representatives who represent border areas in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California oppose the wall, but Hurd is the only Republican. Only two senators in all of those states — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) — support the wall.

Twitter had a few comments about Trump’s goof. Many were quick to point out the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, in which the local mission’s wall failed to protect Texans from Mexican troops.

Before You Go

LOADINGERROR LOADING

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot