Trump’s New Idea to Pay for US Mexico Border Wall: Cover It With Solar Panels
Even though President Trump's dream of building a massive border wall continues to get rejected - first by Mexico and then by Congress - he now is pushing for a border wall with solar panels.
No, it's not a joke or a story from the news satire publication The Onion.
The "solar wall" or "solar-powered border wall" or whatever social media is trying to name it - was proposed by Trump, who ironically doesn't believe in the need for renewable energy.
He recently left the Paris climate agreement, saying a shift to clean energy is a bad deal for America. Yet, in the White House on Tuesday, Trump met with GOP leaders and suggested that his beloved border wall could be built with solar panels as a way to pay for it, according to several sources familiar with the conversation.
"One idea he is looking at is a wall that would actually function as a solar panel to ultimately pay for itself," House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) told The Hill. Scalise also said the suggestion "sounds like it's got real promise," to the Wall Street Journal.
The odd part of the GOP getting excitement over the idea of a solar border wall, is that they have worked extremely hard to challenge renewables at state and federal levels for years. How is the party of small government going to pay for a multibillion-dollar government plan to build the largest solar system on earth, especially when Trump's budget plan cuts renewable energy by a whopping 70 percent?