Eric Vidal/Reuters
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon—along with other prominent conservative figures—are reportedly backing a plan to raise private funds to build President Trump’s wall along the southern border. According to Politico, Bannon, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), former baseball player Curt Schilling, former Sheriff David Clarke, and Blackwater founder Erik Prince are all in on the effort to use the money raised in the “We The People Will Build the Wall” GoFundMe to actually build a wall. “Do we have a billion dollars right now? No. But can we raise one or two hundred million dollars? No doubt about it,” Bannon told Politico Monday.
The group has reportedly consulted with an Israeli fencing firm and other experts, and concluded they can build one mile of wall for “$1.5 to $2.5 million”—excluding the cost of land. The GoFundMe has currently raised about $20.6 million. Kobach set high hopes for the project’s first year, projecting the group could raise “$100 million for over 30 miles of wall.” This comes after Trump has publicly considered declaring a national emergency to obtain the $5.7 billion needed to build his desired wall along the Mexican border.