Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was brutally mocked on Tuesday after she revealed that Donald Trump asked for the U.S.-Mexico border wall to be painted black to make it too hot for migrants to climb.
Noem — in a press conference outside the border wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico — teased the additions of “technology, cameras” and “sensors” to the wall, which Customs and Border Protection looks to complete with tens of billions of dollars in additional funding from the president’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill.
She went on to claim that the wall’s height as well as its depth makes it difficult, if not “impossible,” to go over or dig under before she dove into Trump “specifically” requesting for the wall to get a new paint job.
“[He] understands that 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,” said Noem, who declared that workers would move “pretty quickly” on the painting efforts although a contract hasn’t been approved for the full job yet.
Later in the presser, Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks added that the black paint would protect the wall from “rusting,” as well.
