A section of fencing at the border was built “to make me look bad,” President Donald Trump claimed over the weekend.
“I disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“It was only done to make me look bad, and perhsps [sic] it now doesnt even work.”
The section should have been built like the rest of the wall has been built, he added.
Fisher Industries, a construction firm based in North Dakota, erected a three-mile stretch of border fencing in Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump was reacting to a story that reported the wall is showing signs of runoff erosion. The story cited engineers and hydrologists who looked at pictures of the wall.
Mark Courtois, an attorney for Fisher Industries, told ProPublica that erosion was “a normal part of new construction projects like this and does not in any way compromise the fence or associated roadway.”
The company is planning to build drainage ditches to help alleviate the situation, he added.
Fisher Industries didnt respond to a request for comment.
Tommy Fisher, CEO of the company, told the Associated Press that Trump “got some misinformation on this stuff” and that he respects the president.
“The wall will stand for 150 years, you mark my words,” Fisher added.
A judge ordered a temporary halt on the construction of the barrier in December 2019 but the order was lifted by the same judge a month later.
The U.S. government, which sued Fisher Industries, failed to show that the walls construction could change the course of Rio Grande and violate a treaty, Southern District of Texas Judge Randy Crane ruled.
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