'Embarrassing boondoggle': Trump’s 'big beautiful wall' is now on life support in Texas

19 June

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) at the Conservative Political Action Conference on August 4, 2022 (Image: Shutterstock)

Long before President Donald Trump pushed the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, he called for a "big, beautiful wall" on the U.S./Mexico border. And of the four U.S. states that shared a border with Mexico, GOP-leaning Texas had the loudest and most vocal support for the wall.

But MSNBC's Ja'han Jones, in his June 19 column, stresses that Trump's "big, beautiful wall" now seems to be on life support in the Lone Star State.

"Texas appears to have quietly stopped funding its plans to construct its own border wall with Mexico, which could mark the end of an embarrassing boondoggle designed to bolster one of President Donald Trump's early campaign slogans," Jones explains. "For years, conservatives have framed the idea of a border wall as essential to immigration enforcement, despite a chorus of critics denouncing it as costly and ineffective. And Texas Republicans' decision to defund the project seems like a tacit acknowledgment of that reality."

The Texas Tribune, on June 17, reported that a new state budget signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott contains no funding for a wall.

According to Tribune reporters Zach Despart and Alejandro Serrano, "Just 8 percent of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date. The Texas Tribune reported last year that the wall is full of gaps that migrants and smugglers can easily walk around and mostly concentrated on sprawling ranches in rural areas, where illegal border crossings are less likely to occur."

Jones notes that Texas Republicans are trying to spin the lack of funding for the wall as a positive sign for President Donald Trump.

"A spokesperson for Gov. Greg Abbott told the Tribune that the Trump Administration's immigration crackdown has allowed the state to adjust its enforcement plans," Jones observes. "And State Sen. Joan Huffman, the state's lead budget writer, told the outlet that rather than paying for the wall, the budget authorizes money for state entities that are aiding Abbott's immigration crusade: a controversial project known as Operation Lone Star, which also has been denounced as a tremendous waste of time and money."

Jones adds, "The idea of a 'big, beautiful wall' between the U.S. and Mexico has become deeply ingrained in the MAGA movement — Trump's followers have used chants and costumes to celebrate it. And yet, the idea appears dead as a doornail in Texas, a state virtually under total Republican control. And at this point, the scattered remains of the state's border wall seem like little more than shrines to the president's ignorant policies."

Ja'han Jones' full MSNBC column is available at this link.

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