President Donald Trump
insists his views on a border wall with Mexico have not evolved, pushing back against his own chief of staff ’s comments.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday publicly pushed back against a characterization by White House chief of staff John Kelly that his views on a southern border wall had “evolved” and privately fumed about the episode.
“The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,” the president said in a morning tweet. “Parts will be, of necessity, see through and it was never intended to be built in areas where there is natural protection such as mountains, wastelands or tough rivers or water.”
Trump’s comments on Twitter came a day after Kelly told Democratic lawmakers that some of the hard-line immigration policies Trump advocated during the campaign were “uninformed,” that the United States will never construct a wall along its entire southern border and that Mexico will never pay for it, according to people familiar with the meeting.
Later Wednesday, Kelly confirmed his comments to Democratic lawmakers during a television interview but attempted to play down any differences with the president while describing him as a willing negotiator as a government shutdown looms.
“He has evolved in the way he looks at things,” Kelly told Fox News. “Campaign to governing are two different things, and this president has been very flexible in terms of what’s in the realm of the possible.”
Trump associates said the president was furious with Kelly both for what he said and for the tone he used, which Trump thought made it appear he was a child who had to be managed.
One Trump associate who spoke to the president Wednesday night said Trump thought Kelly’s comments made him look bad and that he was giving in to Democrats.
The president, this person said, particularly disliked that the word “uninformed” appeared in news reports and has chafed for weeks at the characterization of him as not intelligent and flighty in the best-selling book about his presidency by author Michael Wolff.
Trump’s pushback came as his Justice Department on Thursday announced it would take the unusual step of asking the Supreme Court to overturn a judge'’ ruling and allow his administration to dismantle an Obama-era program that provides work permits to certain immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the court to add the case to its docket this term. The unusual action that would allow the government to bypass the 9th Circuit altogether in its bid to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program starting in March.
In another tweet Thursday morning, Trump continued to insist Mexico would pay for the border wall.
Meanwhile, Haitian community leaders and immigrant activists say that thousands of Haitian immigrants in the U.S. legally will face employment and travel hurdles because Trump’s administration delayed the process of reregistering those with temporary protected status.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released details Thursday about the next steps for the 60,000 Haitians with the special status. But the information comes too late to help the thousands whose immigration documentsshow their legal and work status expiring Monday, said immigrants and advocates, some of whom wondered — in light of the president’s recent vulgar remarks about Haiti — if the bureaucratic slowdown was deliberate.
The Trump administration announced in November that Haitians under the temporary status would have until July 2019 to return home.
Also, dozens of former U.S. ambassadors to African countries have written to Trump expressing “deep concern” over his comments about the continent and warning that respectful engagement is crucial to protecting U.S. interests.