Trump Team Comments On Border Policy
The Trump campaign is hitting back hard against a media narrative that Vice President Kamala Harris might be shifting her stance on border wall construction. On Tuesday, the campaign strongly denied claims that Harris is warming up to the idea of building more barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, calling such suggestions “preposterous” and “false.”
Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for the Trump campaign, didn’t mince words. She criticized the media for allowing Harris to avoid tough questions, pointing out that it’s been 37 days since Harris last gave an interview. Leavitt’s statement was a response to a headline from Axios, which suggested that Harris had “flip-flopped” on border wall construction.
The article highlighted Harris’s support of a bipartisan border security bill introduced earlier this year. The bill includes some funding for border wall construction, though it’s a far cry from the $25 billion that former President Donald Trump had aimed to secure for his wall.
The Trump campaign is making it clear that they see this narrative as misleading. They argue that Harris’s support for the bill doesn’t mean she’s suddenly in favor of Trump’s border wall. The bill, which has backing from the Biden administration, does include a limited amount of funding for additional wall construction, but this is just a small part of a broader effort to enhance border security and limit asylum entries. The package hasn’t gained enough Republican support to pass in Congress, and the Trump camp insists that Harris’s endorsement of the bill doesn’t reflect a real shift in her position.
Dreamers should not be pitted against their families or traded away like some commodity in exchange for a un-American, $25 billion wall.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) February 26, 2018
To back up their stance, the Trump campaign pointed to Harris’s long history of opposing border wall construction. They noted that during the Trump administration, over 400 miles of border wall were built, but that progress was halted when Biden and Harris took office in 2021. While there have been some minor continuations of wall construction due to previously allocated funds, the Biden-Harris administration has made it clear that they oppose expanding the wall significantly.
Harris’s past comments also paint a picture of consistent opposition. Back in 2018, she called the border wall “un-American,” and in 2019, she dismissed it as “the president’s medieval vanity project.” During her 2020 campaign, she went even further, labeling the wall as “a complete waste of taxpayer money” that wouldn’t enhance security.
The Trump campaign is pushing back on the idea that Harris is now trying to portray herself as tough on border security. They pointed out that despite recent campaign ads showing images of the Trump-era border wall, Harris has consistently criticized the wall and played a role in halting its construction when she became vice president. They also reminded everyone of her limited role as the administration’s “border czar,” which focused more on addressing the root causes of migration rather than on physical border security.
Trump senior adviser Jason Miller was especially blunt, calling the idea of Harris flip-flopping “total bulls—.” He emphasized that Harris has always opposed the wall and hasn’t changed her stance.