Trump is making troops go paint his border wall to make it prettier for him

Here is your tax dollars at work.

CBS News reported late Wednesday that Trump is deploying military to the border to paint a mile-long segment of of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border to “improve” its “aesthetic appearance.”

The Department of Homeland Security notified lawmakers on Wednesday of the deployment, which will last “approximately 30 days,” according to CBS News.

DHS claimed in an email that the paint on the fencing could have other benefits other than appearance, including making it harder for immigrants to scale the barrier.

“While the primary purpose is to improve the aesthetic appearance of the wall, there may also be an operational benefit based on our experience with painted barrier in Nogales, Arizona,” reads the email from DHS to lawmakers.

Trump has a bizarre fixation on the details of his border wall, including making sick demands that any new border wall be built with the expressed purpose of physically injuring any migrants who try and scale it.

Trump believes that painting the wall a matte black color would burn immigrants’ hands. Trump also wants pointed spokes on the top of the slats that would “inflict pain” on migrants. Trump’s very specific and graphic demands about how his wall should look, and the kind of injury it should cause, is also expected to make the wall more costly — at taxpayers’ expense because Trump has failed to deliver on his campaign promise to make Mexico pay for it.

Democratic lawmakers have slammed the move to use military resources for such a ridiculous purpose.

“DHS informed Congress today that troops are going to spend the next month painting the border wall & ‘the primary purpose is to improve the aesthetic appearance,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) tweeted Wednesday. “A disgraceful misuse of taxpayer $$. Our military has more important work to do than making Trump’s wall beautiful.”

Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Joaquin Castro told CBS News it’s a “gross misuse” of the military.

“These are soldiers, they are not painters,” he said.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.