President-elect Donald Trump has accused the Biden administration of selling off unused border wall material at a discount, calling it an “almost criminal act.”
President Trump said the auction would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to repurchase large steel bollards and concrete. He called on President Biden to “stop selling the wall” and suggested his team might seek a restraining order to stop the sale.
The president-elect also said he is working with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other Texas leaders to reacquire the materials.
“What they're doing is really an act, almost a criminal act,” he said. “They know we're going to use it, and if we don't have it, we're going to have to rebuild it, which is twice as much as it cost a few years ago. , and that's going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. We're talking about a lot of walls.”
On clearance: Why is the Biden administration selling wall material outside the border?
On Tuesday, June 23, 2020, then-President Trump tours part of the border wall in San Luis, Arizona. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
This comes a week after a video released by the Daily Wire showed large pieces of border wall material being removed from the border and sold at auction. According to a report in the Daily Wire, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection whistleblower has removed unused border wall material along three stations on the Arizona-Mexico border: Tucson, Nogales, and Three Points. He insisted that the administration's goal is to sell all of them by the end of the year.
A representative for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Fox News Digital that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for constructing and managing the border wall.
A Pentagon official told Fox News Digital that the materials currently being sold through online auctions had already been sold by the federal government earlier this year, and that the majority of the materials were sold to a government surplus retailer called Gab Planet. He said he is doing so.
Defense officials said the materials no longer belong to the U.S. government and the Pentagon has no legal authority to recall them or stop further resale.
Tom Cotton demands preservation of Department of Defense records on border wall material sales
Migrants flee through a gap in the border wall being repaired in Lukeville, Arizona, on December 5, 2023. (Fox News)
Meanwhile, local leaders Yuma CountyThe westernmost state of Arizona also confirmed to Fox News Digital that the Biden administration's sale of unused border materials has continued at a regular pace since the start of 2021.
Jonathan LinesYuma County supervisors told Fox News Digital that equipment retailer Iron Planet has been partnering with the federal government to sell materials for the past three years. He explained that while works start at auction for $5, they often end up fetching between $8,000 and $10,000.
Nevertheless, Lines refuted reports that the Biden administration was ramping up sales of border wall materials in an effort to remove them before Trump took office, calling them “sensationalism.”
“They're selling it consistently, and every week or every other week a section of the wall goes up for sale,” he explained.
Texas sheriff complains about Biden administration selling border wall parts
The Trump-era border wall remains unfinished even after the Biden administration blocked it.
Last week, Gov Planet listed border wall materials on an online auction site advertising multiple lots, with a minimum opening bid of $5 for a 20-ton steel bollard.
Mr. Trump, who made government efficiency a top priority during his second administration, viewed the fiscal waste caused by auctions as a particular problem.
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“The people who are buying it, or trying to buy it, are trying to make deals with us to sell it back hundreds and hundreds of times what we paid for it,” he said. “Think about how ridiculous that is. It's just a bunch of people who don't want this country to succeed. And this has nothing to do with being a Democrat or a Republican. This has to do with common sense. We Common sense prevailed, and this is probably one of the most egregious examples I've seen.”
“So today I'm asking Joe Biden: please stop selling the wall,” he continued. “This is something that people can't believe is happening, so I hope Joe can stop it.”
