President Donald Trump may have put aside his threats of a government shutdown over funding for his proposed border wall, but there may be another way for him to acquire the funds: GoFundMe.
Days after a New York Post op-ed asked why no one had launched a GoFundMe to fund the border wall, Trump supporter Brian Kolfage answered the article’s call. The triple amputee and military veteran launched the campaign on Dec. 16, setting an initial goal of $200 million.
Within four days, more than 40,000 people have contributed to the campaign, donating more than $2.4 million to date. Due to the rapid success of the campaign, Kolfage increased the goal to $1 billion, which is the current maximum for the site.
On the campaign’s page, Kolfage explained that one of Trump’s campaign promises was to build a border wall, noting that although “he’s followed through on just about every promise so far, this wall project needs to be completed still.” According to Kolfage, if each of the 63 million people who voted for Trump pledged $80, it would be sufficient to build the wall.
Last month, Trump warned that it “would be a very good time to do a shutdown” in order to gain support for his $5 billion border wall. As the government approached its budget deadline, it became clear that Trump’s tactic may not work, leading to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announcing Tuesday that the administration was looking into “different funding sources” to finance the project.
A Senate budget proposal passed Wednesday does not include the $5 billion requested by Trump, but keeps border security funding at current levels. The proposal will next go to the House, where it needs to be passed ahead of the Friday deadline.