President Donald Trump praised DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for the decision to paint the entire southern border wall black, asserting that it will enhance the wall’s effectiveness and make it “untouchable” for those attempting to cross illegally.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said, “I didn’t know she was listening” when he suggested the wall should be black.
He continued, “So, I turn on last night, and I see Kristi is painting the wall. And it looked beautiful, by the way, when that paint went on. It’s beautiful. It’s hot. If it’s white, it’s not hot. If it’s black, it’s going to be very hard to climb that sucker.”
Trump also highlighted the wall’s construction, noting, “I built the same wall that the Border Patrol asked me to build,” using high-grade steel, reinforced with thick rebar and 9,000-pound concrete.
Noem announced on Tuesday that the entire southern border wall would be painted black as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to strengthen the wall as a deterrent.
Speaking at a section of the wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, Noem said the black paint serves two purposes: making the wall hotter and harder to climb, while also preserving the metal from rust.
She credited Congress’s “one big, beautiful bill” passed in July for allocating “an incredible amount of resources” that would allow construction to continue at a pace of roughly half a mile of new wall per day.
Noem explained that the new paintwork was undertaken “specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black, it gets even warmer, and it will make it even harder for people to climb.”
“We are going to be painting the entire southern border wall black to make sure that we encourage individuals to not come into our country illegally, to not break our federal laws, but that they will abide and come to our country the right way so that they can stay and have the opportunity to become United States citizens and pursue the American dream,” Noem said.
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump recalled telling Noem, “We got to get a coat of paint on it.”
“And I didn’t know she was listening, but I said, ‘We got to get a coat of paint, and it should be black because black makes the steel very hot. It’s untouchable. You could fry an egg on it, and if you got a good, black, flat paint, it would look beautiful, and it will preserve it from rust. And that was it, and I gave it to her along with 30 other things.'”
Turning to Noem, who stood beside him, Trump asked, “Is that going to be a two-coat job or one coat?”
“Just one coat,” Noem replied.
Trump responded, “The two-coat [job] will take place in three years from now. We’ll do the second. But it looks beautiful. Thank you very much. I didn’t know you were listening. Like, we talked about seven different subjects. And all of a sudden, I see you’re out there painting with a lot of painters and everything else, but it was a beautiful thing to see.”
