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This undated rendering provided by DarkPulse Technologies Inc. shows a proposed border wall between Mexico and the U.S. The wall proposed by Arizona-based DarkPulse Technologies would be constructed with ballistic concrete that can withstand tampering or attacks of any kind, according to founder Dennis O'Leary. "You could fire a tank round at it and it will take the impact," he told The Associated Press. AP

Trump promised voters "a big, beautiful wall." But it might not look like a wall at all. It might look more like the 694 miles of fencing already built.

The CBP proposal requirements indicated that the wall would have to be at least 18 feet high and able to withstand significantly physical force, prevent climbing and tunneling and be aesthetically appealing on the American side.

There's some indication that fencing may indeed rule the day. Touting the funding secured to repair 40 miles of existing border fencing secured in the omnibus-spending bill Congress passed this month, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney showed images of 20-foot cyclone fencing and told reporters this kind of steel fencing might be the "wall" in the end.

"This is the wall that DHS said they wanted, sat in the Oval Office with the president, we talked about bricks and mortar, we talked about concrete, and this is what they wanted," Mulvaney said, noting that the DHS believes see-through fencing is safer for border agents. "It's also half of the cost, so we can build twice as much of it."

This is where things get messy.

Much of the nearly 2,000 mile-border is

"Are people concerned about the federal government coming in and trying to grab their land? Yes, they are." Texas Rep. Will Hurd told NBC News. The Republican congressman's district stretches 820 miles along the southern border. "Private property rights are pretty damn important to us."

The last time the federal government built up fencing along the southern border with the Secure Fence Act of 2006, eminent domain laws were used to buy up a significant amount of land, often at a discount of the land's value.

The Trump administration is revving up for a similar fight. The

"I think

As a businessman, he infamously used it to try and force an elderly widow to sell her property so he could build a parking lot for limousines. He lost the case.

That's the multi-billion-dollar question.

"Walls work, just ask Israel," the president said last week at a joint presser with the Colombian president, in his most recent public remarks about his signature promise to America. The administration is quick to note that illegal border crossings are down significantly this year.

Critics say it's a really expensive way to secure the border, which could be more cheaply done with technology, border agents and fencing.

"My goal is that when we look at border security, we do not have a one size fits all solution, we look at every mile of the border differently than we looked at the one before it," Hurd said.

Existing fencing has not, so far, stopped immigrants from crossing the border. Existing fencing was

(CORRECTION: May 30, 2017, 9:50 a.m.) An earlier version of this article misstated the cost and composition of the proposed border wall. The per-mile cost of the wall ranges from $1 million to $21.6 million for a barrier that includes fending, non-concrete barriers and concrete, not just for concrete.

Link:
Donald Trump's Border Wall: A 'Progress' Report - NBCNews.com

President Donald Trumps communications director, Mike Dubke, is resigning from the White House, he confirmed to Politico Tuesday.

Dubketendered his resignation May 18, almost three months after taking on the role, Axios first reported. Trump accepted Dubkes offer to stay while on his first overseas trip as president this month.The White House later confirmed Dubkes resignation to HuffPost.

The spokesmans last day has not been determined, but could be Tuesday, The Washington Post reported. He plans to return to work at Black Rock group, his communications and public affairs firm, according to Politico.

The reasons for my departure are personal, but it has been my great honor to serve President Trump and this administration, Dubke, 47, wrote in an email to friends, according to Politico. It has also been my distinct pleasure to work side-by-side, day-by-day with the staff of the communications and press departments. This White House is filled with some of the finest and hardest working men and women in the American Government.

Dubke didnt give a reason for his departure but multiple media outlets reported that it was because he was largely isolated from the presidents steadfast inner circle.

His exit comes amid growing turmoil within the White House. Trump reportedly scaled back the public role of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and hes expected to give fewer on-camera briefings after the presidents trip abroad.

Spicer served as both press secretary and communications director for the White House until Dubke came aboard in March. The veteran GOP strategist rose to national prominence in 2001 after founding Crossroads Media,a Republican media services and advertising firm.

This article has been updated throughout.

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Donald Trump's Communications Director Resigns - HuffPost

Forbes

Donald Trump: Sights And Sounds Forbes The most avid news junkie would be hard pressed to recount the words of the speeches Donald Trump made during his just-concluded whirlwind international tour; yet even the most casual observer would very likely be able to rattle off specific details of ...

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Donald Trump: Sights And Sounds - Forbes

So this week, he warns us, the president is going to announce his decision on whether the United States will remain a party to the Paris climate accord. I guess the delay is meant to dupe us into believing that hes been studying the substance of the issue.

I think we all expect that hell pull the United States out of the agreement, signed by 195 nations (and unsigned by just Nicaragua and Syria, if you want an idea of the company Donald Trump would be putting us in). Indeed Axios reported Monday that Trump has already told several associates that hes giving it the heave-ho. The thin reed of hope here is that a slew of major U.S. corporationsincluding the CEO of Exxon!have told him to stay in Paris.

So maybe theres the slimmest of chances that he might pleasantly surprise us. But come on. He knows hed have a mutiny on his hands if he doesnt reject the accord. The three key elements of the Republican Party these days are the hardest-right members of Congress (look, for example, at how the House Republicans rewrote the health bill to placate the Freedom Caucus); Rush Limbaugh and the other media propagandists, and the rabid pro-Trump base. Each of these overlapping groups would be enraged if Trump stuck with Paris.

As a matter of politics, hes already lost more or less the entire country except for these people. If he starts losing themby doing things like coming around to Barack Obamas position on climate changetheyll start thinking the words President Pence sound just fine. And they, unlike the rest of us, have the power to make it happen.

So lets assume that by weeks end the United States is out of the Paris accords. There are two contexts in which we need to understand the gravity of the moment.

The first is the domestic political context. Republicans will be hailing this as a great victory for the American people, who dont want to be bound by these onerous and heavy-handed international treaties. However, the truth as far as we can discern is that the American people do in fact want to be bound by these treaties.

First of all, most Americans believe that climate change is a real problem that the human race has caused or contributed to and must do something about. Gallup found a little more than a year ago that public concern about climate change was at an eight-year high. Fully 64 percent said they worried about climate change, and nine in 10 said the effects are either now being felt or will certainly be felt in the future, leaving the hoax dead-enders at 10 percent of the population (but about 52 percent of the Congress; oh well).

Which brings us to the Paris agreement. It hasnt been polled much, but last November the Chicago Council on Global Affairs commissioned a survey that found that 71 percent of Americansand even 57 percent of Republicansback the accord.

In other words, the GOP position is deeply unpopular. So if Trump moves in the expected direction, it will lower his own popularity, and the congressional GOPs. Pretty much every major item on the GOP agenda, from getting out of Paris to repealing Obamacare to giving the rich more tax cuts, is wildly unpopular. Yet they keep doing it, and keep wondering why theyre so unpopular. Its not complicated. They are carrying out the will of their huge donors and about a third at best of the population. So the political fallout for them will be negative, and that of course is all to the good.

In the second context, however, the political fallout is likely to be extremely harmful to the United States. I refer of course to the international context. We saw Trump complete a disastrous overseas trip, which started with him outing the Mossad, built toward his alarming non-defense of NATO, and ended with this puffy and low-energy old man unable to join his fellow heads-of-state and walk a few hundred feet.

That was funny, in a pathetic sort of way. But Angela Merkels speech in southern Germany Sunday wasnt funny. As Henry Farrell observed in The Washington Post, Merkels rhetoric about the EU needing to go its own way was a stark departure from the past, indicating that Germany and Europe are likely to take on a much more substantial and independent role than they have in the past 70 years.

To hear American conservativesand Trumptell it, the EU is a hidebound and sclerotic institution that cant approve golf courses fast enough. But guess which economy is bigger, the EU or the United States? In 2016, China was first, the EU second, and America third.

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To those of you who say that getting out of Paris will unleash the American tiger, I say stop reading InfoWars. Theres a reason the Exxon CEO wants us to stay in. Its called a global marketplace in which the rules are standardized. For the United States of America, which has led every major international concert since World War II, to stand down from that role and go its own way is humiliating and, more to the point, self-marginalizing. The Paris agreement expands markets, creates new energy technologies, and spurs growth. Were really going to say we want no part of that, are we?

And just imagine how it will feel three years from now, say, when theres another major international accord of some kind, and the two people standing up front are Angela Merkel and Xi Jinping, with the president of the United States absent. Donnie Two Scoops will be down in Palm Beach, tweeting away, eating his favorite dessert. And the world will be eating our lunch.

The rest is here:
Donald Trump Deals Away America's Prestige, and His Own Position - Daily Beast

New York Times

Donald Trump: The Gateway Degenerate New York Times Last week, when voters in Montana elected Greg Gianforte to fill the state's lone seat in the House of Representatives, even after he was recorded in a physical altercation with a reporter, many Americans like me were left to look on in ... Greg Gianforte: Fox News team witnesses GOP House candidate 'body slam' reporterFox News Election Results: Gianforte Wins U.S. House Seat in Montana Election Results 2017 The New York TimesThe New York Times Ben Jacobs | TheHillThe Hill ABC News all 469 news articles »

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Donald Trump: The Gateway Degenerate - New York Times