Frustrated with the federal government’s turtle-like pace, Iraq war veteran and triple amputee Brian Kolfage has created a GoFundMe campaign to raise $1 billion to fund the construction of a wall on the United States-Mexico border.
Kolfage’s efforts began when President Trump backed away from his commitment to fund a border wall during the latest budget battle with Congress to avoid a government shutdown.
“At the end of the day we don’t want to shut down the government, we want to shut down the border,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday, adding, “There are certainly a number of different funding sources that we’ve identified that we can use, that we can couple with money that would be given through congressional appropriations that would help us get to that $5 billion that the president needs in order to protect our border.”
That’s where Kolfage comes in.
Kolfage is among the many Americans who supported the president but are beginning to wonder when he will fulfill his promise of border protection. It seems there is always a “budget battle” or some other compromise that relegates the border wall to the back burner.
“Democrats are going to stall this project by every means possible and play political games to ensure President Trump doesn’t get his victor [sic],” Kolfage wrote. “They’d rather see President Trump fail, than see America succeed. However, if we can fund a large portion of this wall, it will jump-start things and will be less money Trump has to secure from our politicians.”
“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,” Kolfage wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Too many Americans have been murdered by illegal aliens and too many illegals are taking advantage of the United States taxpayers with no means of ever contributing to our society.”
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According to the GoFundMe page, if all 63 million Americans who voted for Trump were to pledge $80, it would raise roughly $5 billion, the amount that President Trump is seeking from Congress to build the border wall. However, GoFundMe’s maximum fundraising limit is $1 billion currently. Kolfage says he is working with the fundraising page to remove the cap.
InfoWars reports that the effort has become “immensely popular,” at times raising as much as $1,100 per minute, escalating it to the “Top Fundraisers” section of GoFundMe. In just four days, the page has raised more than $5 million.
And while others have attempted to launch fundraising campaigns to raise money for the border wall, Kolfage has been the most successful, as he has a significant following through his many Facebook pages, including one for Right Wing News and Military Grade Coffee, both of which were targeted and deleted by Facebook for alleged “misinformation.” Kolfage is also well known for the significant injuries he endured while serving our country.
Kolfage reports that he is in contact with the Trump administration to work out the logistics of the donations.
President Trump continues to assure the American people that the wall will be built, “one way or another.”
“In our Country, so much money has been poured down the drain, for so many years, but when it comes to Border Security and the Military, the Democrats fight to the death. We won on the Military, which is being completely rebuilt. One way or the other, we will win on the Wall!” said the president.
According to Politico, this is not the first time that Americans have crowdfunded for the government. Americans have donated funds to help pay down the national debt, and perhaps the most notable campaign has been to raise the money to build a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.
And Kolfage is not the only one to see crowdfunding as a viable option for building the wall. Just this week, Republican Representative Steven Palazzo introduced a bill that would enable Americans to buy “border bonds” to help raise the money for the wall. Palazzo’s plan would allow the U.S. Treasury to sell “border bonds,” which he described on Twitter as a “safe investment into the infrastructure ans [sic] security of our country.” His plan has been submitted to the House’s Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Homeland Security for review.
“This legislation would allow for the patriots of today’s era to help support American security in the same way as previous generations,” Palazzo wrote in a press release. “I believe this legislation allows new alternatives for our citizens to support their values and defend our homeland.”
Representatives Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Diane Black (R-Tenn.) have also both filed bills to create a “Border Wall Trust Fund.”
Image: screenshot from GoFundMe page
