DECEMBER 21, 2018

NEWS AND VIEWS


I THINK THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN.

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2018-12-19/trump-says-military-will-build-wall
Trump Says Military Will Build Wall
After failing to secure money from Congress, Trump turns to the Defense Department again for southern border solution.
By Paul D. Shinkman, Senior National Security Writer Dec. 19, 2018, at 10:36 a.m.

PHOTOGRAPH -- FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. Trump is criticizing Saturday Night Live again on Twitter Sunday, Dec. 16, the morning after another spoof on the sketch-comedy show focused on him. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP reasserted a directive Wednesday – that the Pentagon quietly dismissed last week – that the military will assume responsibility for building a wall along the southern U.S. border.

Trump's announcement follows reports that the president withdrew his demand for $5 billion in funding for a border wall amid a lack of support in Congress as lawmakers seek a funding compromise that will keep the government open. Trump also repeated claims that a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico will generate revenue that will fulfill his campaign promise of forcing America's southern neighbor to pay for the wall.

[ SEE: The Week in Cartoons ]

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Tuesday that the administration was looking for other elements of the government that could fulfill one of the president's signature campaign promises.

"Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for NAFTA!" Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement that he has rebranded as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. "Far more money coming to the U.S. Because of the tremendous dangers at the Border, including large scale criminal and drug inflow, the United States Military will build the Wall!"

Budget Deal Elusive as Shutdown Looms

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Army headquarters currently overseeing domestic operations along the U.S. border deferred questions to the Pentagon, which did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

But on Dec. 11, following Trump's initial claims that he would direct the military to begin wall construction, Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis said, "to date, there is no plan to build sections of the wall."

"However, Congress has provided options under Title 10 U.S. Code that could permit the Defense Department to fund border barrier projects, such as in support of counter drug operations or national emergencies."

The statement from a department that regularly touts its ability to respond to directives immediately was seen as a way to push back on an unplanned demand from the president without openly contradicting the commander in chief.

Trump has hinted at the idea of using the military to pay for or build the wall, including in March. Federal agencies, however, cannot reappropriate funds without congressional approval. And top legislators on Capitol Hill have questioned whether Trump's authority to deploy the military could extend to building a permanent barrier.

[ READ: Trump Foundation to Shut Down Amid Allegations of Misuse From NY AG ]

"The real issue here is the money. There is nothing in the DOD budget that I could recognize as authorizing them to build a wall. I don't know where they get the authority," Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said, according to The Washington Examiner.

Trump has previously used his executive power to deploy the military in support of domestic border issues without an apparent funding mechanism. In October, shortly before the November midterm elections, he announced that thousands of U.S. service members would temporarily deploy to border crossings in Texas, Arizona and California and unguarded portions of the southern border to help build fencing and wire barriers, and provide logistic support to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Trump claimed this was a necessary response to a caravan of hundreds of migrants approaching the U.S. from Central America.

Top military officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, pushed back at the time on Trump's assertions that the military would serve as a police force, saying its responsibilities were limited to logistics and support roles.

That deployment is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, which will likely come out of the Defense Department's operating budget.

Paul D. Shinkman, Senior National Security Writer

Paul D. Shinkman is a national security reporter for U.S. News & World Report. You can follow h... READ MORE
Tags: Donald Trump, immigration, defense spending, Department of Defense, Mexico, world news


IS KOLFAGE TRUMP’S LITTLE HELPER, OR A PARTNER IN CRIME FROM THE BEGINNING, I WONDER? KOLFAGE, A PUBLISHER OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES, COULD HAVE A LINK WITH RUSSIA AS WELL? WHAT ABOUT GARY SINISE AND HIS “FRIENDS OF ABE” CLUB? SINESE IS WELL-KNOWN FOR AIDING WOUNDED SOLDIERS. WHY DID THEIR ORGANIZATION SPLIT UP UNDER DISAGREEMENTS OVER THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN TACTICS? WAS IT FROM DISAPPROVAL OR FEAR OF BEING PERSONALLY PULLED INTO IT, I WONDER.

KOLFAGE’S PHRASEOLOGY HERE -- “I WASN’T PLANNING FOR THIS THING TO BE MASSIVE — MAYBE JUST IN THE CONSERVATIVE CIRCLE,” ALONG WITH THE SINESE HOLLYWOOD GROUP, SUGGESTS OTHER POTENTIAL TENUOUS LINKS IN OUR MAINLY DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY WHICH ONLY BECOME APPARENT WHEN SOMETHING LIKE THE 2016 ELECTION WITH IT’S RUSSIAN CONNECTION BRINGS THEM OUT INTO THE OPEN. KOLFAGE STATES BELOW THAT “WE HAVE SOMEONE WHO IS TIED IN WITH THE WHITE HOUSE THAT’S IN THEIR INNER-CIRCLE,” KOLFAGE SAID.” THAT, IN MY VIEW, IS A VERY TELLING COMMENT.

THE CHARLOTTESVILLE DISASTER ALSO, WITH THE ACTUAL KILLER BEING MISSED AT FIRST AND AN INNOCENT YOUNG MAN PICKED AS THE VILLAIN INSTEAD, WAS SHAMEFUL, BUT I DIDN’T EXPECT IT TO HAVE TIES TO ANY ORGANIZED CRIMINALITY. ON THE OTHER HAND, SOME OF WHAT I’VE SEEN HAPPENING IN THE WHITE HOUSE IS NOT DISSIMILAR TO CRIME FAMILY BEHAVIOR, AND WHAT GREATER CRIMINAL GROUP IS THERE THAN THE KKK AND THE OTHER WHITE SUPREMACY ACTIVISTS IN GENERAL? THEY WANT THE USA TO RETURN TO THE 1800S, AND ARE TRYING TO MOVE HEAVEN AND EARTH TO ACHIEVE THAT. NOT ALL SOUTHERNERS BY ANY MEANS ARE OF THAT TYPE, OF COURSE, NOR ALL WEALTHY PEOPLE.

THIS WHOLE THING REMINDS ME OF SOMETHING I HATE, A SPIDERWEB. WHEN THE UNFORTUNATE GRASSHOPPER LANDS IN IT, HIS FRIGHTENED MOVEMENTS CREATE A MOTION ALARM WHICH THEN AWAKENS THE SPIDER, AND SHE COMES RUNNING OUT TO ATTACK HIM. OUR FAR RIGHT IS COMPOSED OF “SLEEPER CELLS” WAITING FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO STRIKE. ALL THEY NEEDED WAS A VERY MALICIOUS LEADER TO STIR UP THE HATE AND BRING THE CRAZIES OUT INTO THE OPEN.

WE NEED PROTECTION AS MUCH AS FREEDOM, SOMETIMES. FREE SPEECH SHOULDN’T INCLUDE LIES. FACEBOOK DIDN’T FOLLOW UP SOON ENOUGH IN GENERAL ON EJECTING PROPAGANDA WRITERS BECAUSE THIS FACEBOOK CRACKDOWN ONLY OCCURRED A FEW MONTHS AGO, WHILE THE RUSSIAN BOT INVASION BEGAN WITH THE 2015/2016 CAMPAIGN; IN THE END THEY DID, AND I HOPE THEY GOT ALL OF THE CASES.

500 PLUS MALICIOUS SITES WERE REMOVED AT ONCE. THE FBI MAKES MOVES LIKE THAT TO CATCH EVERYONE AT THE SAME TIME, RATHER THAN HAVE ALL THE OTHERS SCURRYING AWAY TO HIDE WHEN ONE IS NABBED. I SUSPECT THAT IS PRECISELY WHY THE FRIENDS OF ABE CLUB BROKE UP RIGHT AFTER TRUMP WON THE ELECTION. THE FBI WAS ALREADY ONTO THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION, COMEY SAID RECENTLY. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHO ELSE IS INVOLVED FROM THE GOVERNMENT. YES, THESE COMMENTS ARE BUILT ON SUPPOSITION, BUT NOT TOTALLY WITHOUT FOUNDATION, I DON’T THINK. IT CERTAINLY IS A VERY SUGGESTIVE PATTERN, AT ANY RATE.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/founder-viral-fundraiser-trump-s-border-wall-has-fake-news-n950636
Founder of viral fundraiser for Trump's border wall has questionable news past
Brian Kolfage told NBC News he didn’t want to mention his previous projects because he “didn’t want it to be a distraction.”
Dec. 20, 2018 / 6:59 PM EST
By Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny

PHOTOGRAPH -- Retired U.S. Air Force Sr. Airman Brian Kolfage speaks to reporters during a 2016 groundbreaking ceremony for a new home he and his family were receiving through the Gary Sinise Foundation's RISE program at Sandestin, Florida, on Jan. 14, 2016.Devon Ravine / Northwest Florida Daily News via AP file

An internet fundraiser for Donald Trump’s border wall took in more than $7 million from over 131,000 donors by early Thursday evening.

The Florida man behind the GoFundMe page, a triple-amputee Iraq War veteran named Brian Kolfage, spent a large portion of the fundraising campaign’s description outlining his past, including a bolded section titled “How do you know this is not a scam?”

He implored users to look up his history, pointing donors to his verified Facebook page, and saying “I'm credible and a real person.”

The pitch has worked. One anonymous donor gave over $50,000 to the cause at 4 p.m. on Thursday. The GoFundMe trended on Twitter most of Thursday and received widespread media attention.

Kolfage told NBC News he’s plans to rely on connections in the White House to make sure the wall is funded, saying “we have a lot of people watching this,” which would “serve as a motivating factor not to screw this up.”

PHOTOGRAPH -- Retired U.S. Air Force Sr. Airman Brian Kolfage speaks to reporters during a 2016 groundbreaking ceremony for a new home he and his family were receiving through the Gary Sinise Foundation's RISE program at Sandestin, Florida, on Jan. 14, 2016.Devon Ravine / Northwest Florida Daily News via AP file

“We have someone who is tied in with the White House that’s in their inner-circle,” Kolfage said. “We can work on a way where we can guarantee with a contract where [the funding] can only go to the wall.”

The fundraising page doesn’t mention Kolfage’s most recent business venture, a Facebook page titled Right Wing News and a ring of affiliate sites that frequently trafficked in conspiracy theories. In October, Right Wing News was pulled down by Facebook in a sweep of more than 559 pages that the company said were “using fake accounts… to drive traffic to their websites” or “were ad farms using Facebook to mislead people into thinking that they were forums for legitimate political debate.”

Days after the pulldown, Kolfage created a group called Fight4FreeSpeech, which accepts donations, and is also not referenced in the GoFundMe.

Kolfage told NBC News he didn’t want to mention Right Wing News or Fight4FreeSpeech because he “didn’t want it to be a distraction.”

“I don’t wanna mix the two. That shouldn’t be the focus. My personal issues have nothing to do with building the wall,” he said.

Recommended -- As shutdown looms, a last-minute push for a deal

Special Report: Trump holds bill signing as shutdown deadline looms

Kolfage also ran Right Wing News’ shuttered affiliate sites including VeteranAF and FreedomDaily, which pushed false conspiracy theories, like ones claiming Hillary Clinton was secretly hiding deadly illnesses and fake voter fraud stories days before the 2016 election.

Those sites stopped operating in March, replaced with a string of text that said “This Website Has Gone Out of Business.”

The shuttering of Kolfage’s sites came a month after Michigan man Joel Vangheluwe sued FreedomDaily and other right wing sites for misidentifying him as the driver of the car that plowed into a group of peaceful protestors at a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The FreedomDaily article relied on the image board 4chan as its major source, according to a letter provided to the court by the contributor named in the suit. Kolfage was not listed as a defendant.

The sites often trafficked in false, inflammatory and racist content, including headlines like “Obnoxious Black People Lose Their Minds When Victoria Secret Models Say This 1 Word On Live Video” and “Trump Just Released Embarrassing Vids Of Obama’s Muslim Friends That He Never Wanted Seen.”

FreedomDaily and VeteranAF frequently ran identical stories by users with different bylines. Several stories on FreedomDaily written by “Liberty Belle” also appear on “VeteranAF” under the byline “Lady Liberty.”

Following Facebook’s takedown, Kolfage’s story drew considerable interest from right-wing media sites including Breitbart and WorldNetDaily. He has since appeared on Fox News to tout Fight4FreeSpeech, a group against “social media censorship.”

Meanwhile, Kolfage’s new crowdfunding effort is thriving. He said if there’s another major conservative cause in the next two months, it will have to be someone else’s problem.

“If there’s another big thing that comes up, somebody else is gonna have to take it. I have two kids and a wife. I wasn’t planning for this thing to be massive — maybe just in the conservative circle,” he said.

Ben Collins
Ben Collins covers disinformation, extremism and the internet for NBC News.

Brandy Zadrozny
Brandy Zadrozny is an investigative reporter for NBC News.


FRIENDS OF ABE. THIS SOUNDS A LITTLE LIKE THE "ODD FELLOWS SOCIETY" AND THE "FLAT EARTH SOCIETY." THERE IS ONE DISTURBING SENTENCE IN HERE -- THAT THEY HAVE "BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN CREATING A COMMUNITY THAT EXTENDS FAR BEYOND OUR EVENTS" THEIR MEMBERSHIP IS NO LONGER AS ENTHUSIASTIC." DOES THAT MEAN THEY HAVE SET UP A FAR RIGHT SOCIETY ACROSS THE COUNTRY THAT EXCEEDS THEIR FONDEST WISHES?" OH, DEAR, I DO HOPE NOT!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/21/secretive-hollywood-conservative-group-dissolves-trump
Secretive group of Hollywood conservatives suddenly dissolves
The announcement by the Friends of Abe fueled speculation that infighting over Donald Trump’s candidacy had drained commitment
Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
@rorycarroll72
Thu 21 Apr 2016 22.14 EDT

PHOTOGRAPH -- Jon Voight is one of the group’s 1,500 members. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/AP

The Friends of Abe has acted as a clandestine club for Hollywood conservatives for more than a decade, hosting secret events where they could vent rightwing views and hear speeches from visiting Tea Party luminaries.

But on Thursday the organisation – which counts Jon Voight, Jerry Bruckheimer and Kelsey Grammer among its 1,500 members – made an abrupt announcement: it was dissolving.

“Effective immediately, we are going to begin to wind down the 501 c3 organization, bring the Sustaining Membership dues to an end, and do away with the costly infrastructure and the abespal.com website,” the executive director, Jeremy Boreing, told members in an email, a copy of which the Guardian has seen.

“Today, because we have been successful in creating a community that extends far beyond our events, people just don’t feel as much of a need to show up for every speaker or bar night, and fewer people pay the dues that help us maintain that large infrastructure.”

The announcement caught members by surprise and fueled speculation that infighting over Donald Trump’s candidacy, among other factors, had drained commitment. Others said the group had been losing steam for years.

Instead of electrifying the organisation, California’s 7 June primary, a final and potentially decisive showdown between Trump and his GOP rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich, appeared to frazzle it.

RELATED: Why California is Republicans' best bet to stop Trump

Lionel Chetwynd, a producer and screenwriter and co-founder of the FOA, recently spoke of the primary campaign causing a “civil war in slow motion”, which fractured friendships and shredded solidarity.

Boreing, a director and producer, put a positive gloss on the announcement, saying the initial hunger for fellowship had prompted the group to build an expensive website, rent offices and hire staff, including lawyers and accountants.

“It’s time to change how we do it. As our group has grown in size and success, many of the structures that helped us grow have become less useful ... It means an end to the standing organization, but not an end to the mission or the fellowship.”

Boreing vowed to maintain the mailing list and stage events, but without the infrastructure, staff or budget requirements.

“We will still get together for drinks and speakers, but we may reassess how we approach those events logistically. In short, FOA will return to its roots. It will be a passion project, like it was in the beginning ... We’ll still be a private organization that protects the names of our members at all costs.”

Boreing did not immediately respond to interview requests.

Members expressed surprise and dismay at the weakening, and perhaps loss, of a refuge from what they see as Hollywood’s bullying liberal ethos.

It was the one place where many of its members – actors, producers, writers and technicians – felt safe from liberal sneers and potential retribution.

“As a conservative, if you expressed your political views at work you would be weeded out,” said Jack Marino, a film-maker. “At Abe events we could get together over dinner and hang out with our own kind and speak freely.”

Another member, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed bafflement and disappointment at the group’s winding down.

Formed in 2005, high-profile supporters include Clint Eastwood, Gary Sinise and Patricia Heaton, who played Debra Barone in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

The group, named after Abraham Lincoln, swore members to secrecy by adopting a line from the film Fight Club: the first rule of the Friends of Abe is you do not talk about the Friends of Abe.

For a time it ran a tightly controlled Facebook page and banned members from talking to the press, taking pictures or tweeting at events – rules occasionally breached.

In addition to Trump and Cruz, the group hosted the likes of Antonin Scalia, Dick Cheney, John Boehner and Rush Limbaugh at venues around Los Angeles, including the Reagan library, the Luxe Hotel and the Bistro Garden.

It became more widely known – and a rallying point for Republicans – when news leaked in 2014 that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating the group in connection with its application for tax-exempt status. The IRS subsequently granted the status.

TOPICS

Los Angeles
Republicans
US elections 2016
US politics
California


ARE AT LEAST THE BASIC PARTS OF THIS STORY TRUE? DID THIS RIGHT-LEANING WOUNDED VETERAN SET UP THE FUNDRAISING AND DID KOLFAGE WRITE FAIRLY SCANDALOUS MATERIAL FOR A FAKE NEWS SITE FOR MONEY IN THE PAST? SNOPES SAYS YES, AND I DO TRUST SNOPES.

FACT CHECK: Did a GoFundMe Campaign to Fund a Border Wall ...
https://www.snopes.com › Fact Check › Politics
Claim: A GoFundMe campaign raised millions of dollars for the construction of a border wall within a few days of its launch in December 2018.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gofundme-border-wall/
Did a GoFundMe Campaign to Fund a Border Wall Raise Millions of Dollars Within a Few Days?

Claim
A GoFundMe campaign raised millions of dollars for the construction of a border wall within a few days of its launch in December 2018.

Rating

True

About this rating
Origin

In December 2018, reports emerged that an online crowd-funding campaign was attempting to circumvent an ongoing budget standoff between the White House and Congressional Democrats. The fight was over $5 billion in annual funding demanded by President Donald Trump for his long-promised wall along the southern border of the United States.

CNBC reported that “A fundraiser to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has raised nearly $5 million in three days on the online platform GoFundMe.” Politico wrote: “Brian Kolfage, a 37-year-old Florida resident who was severely wounded in the Iraq war, has started a GoFundMe campaign to complete Trump’s signature pledge. The campaign has raised over $4 million in the three days since it started, with an overall goal of $1 billion.”

The fundraiser is real. By 20 December, four days after it was started, the crowd-funding campaign called “We the People Will Fund the Wall” had raised more than $7 million.

The man behind it, Brian Kolfage, is an Air Force veteran who lost three of his limbs while deployed in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart in 2004. Kolfage is also an outspoken supporter of the current president, and he frequently shares his conservative political views on social media.

He was previously an administrator of the Right Wing News Facebook page, which was one of hundreds removed from the social networking platform in October for what Facebook described as “inauthentic activity.” As of 20 December, Kolfage was listed as a “social media and advertising strategist” for the RightWing.News* website, which has a track record of publishing junk news and hyper-partisan conspiracy theories, some of which we have previously debunked.

Kolfage also ran a now-defunct affiliate website of Right Wing News called Freedom Daily, whose long record of producing often racially inflammatory junk news we have repeatedly documented. In February 2018, Freedom Daily was one of several such sites sued for defamation in federal court for falsely identifying a Michigan teenager as being responsible for the killing of Heather Heyer, an anti-racist counter-protester at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The description on his crowd-funding campaign page for the border wall reads:

Like a majority of those American citizens who voted to elect President Donald J Trump, we voted for him to Make America Great Again. President Trump’s main campaign promise was to BUILD THE WALL. And as he’s followed through on just about every promise so far, this wall project needs to be completed still.

As a veteran who has given so much, 3 limbs, I feel deeply invested to this nation to ensure future generations have everything we have today. Too many Americans have been murdered by illegal aliens and too many illegals are taking advantage of the United States taxpayers with no means of ever contributing to our society.

I have grandparents who immigrated to America legally, they did it the correct way and it’s time we uphold our laws, and get this wall BUILT! It’s up to Americans to help out and pitch in to get this project rolling. “If the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall.” That equates to roughly 5 Billion Dollars, even if we get half, that’s half the wall. We can do this.

Democrats are going to stall this project by every means possible and play political games to ensure President Trump doesn’t get his [victory]. They’d rather see President Trump fail, than see America succeed. However, if we can fund a large portion of this wall, it will jumpstart things and will be less money Trump has to secure from our politicians. This won’t be easy, but it’s our duty as citizens. This needs to be shared every single day by each of you on social media. We can do it, and we can help President Trump make America safe again!

The campaign is real, but it’s not clear how it might function, and whether it could make even a small contribution to the actual cost of any border-wall construction.

Kolfage’s claim that “if the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall” seems highly inaccurate. It’s true that 63 million people did vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, and $80 from each of those would amount to roughly $5 billion.

However, $5 billion is the amount that Trump had demanded to be set aside for the border wall just in the 2019 budget, before he appeared to back away from that demand in December 2018. No study or report exists that estimates the likely total cost of constructing a border wall would be $5 billion.

Indeed, Trump himself has previously said he would need $25 billion to build the wall, before lowering his estimate to $15 or $20 billion. His administration has in the past requested $18 billion from Congress for just the first planned phase of construction.

In 2017, a leaked internal report prepared by the Department of Homeland Security put the estimated total cost of the wall at $21.6 billion, and a study conducted by Democratic Senate staff estimated it would cost as much as $70 billion to construct and $150 million per year to maintain.

In the first four days of the campaign, Kolfage raised around $7 million, which equates to $1.75 million per day. Even at that impressive rate (one that is unlikely to be sustained beyond the initial excitement and media attention surrounding the campaign), it would take 571 days to reach $1 billion.

This means Kolfage’s campaign would only raise 20 percent of what Trump asked for in 2019 alone, halfway through 2020.

Based on Trump’s most recent, reduced estimate for the total cost of the wall ($15-20 billion), it would take Kolfage’s campaign between 23 and 31 years to pay for it, and that would only be possible if GoFundMe increased its current fundraising ceiling of $1 billion by between 1,400 and 1,900 percent. (We asked GoFundMe whether it was considering raising that cap, but we did not receive a response.)

Furthermore, in order to reach Trump’s projected total cost of $15-20 billion, the 63 million Americans who voted for him in 2016 would have to contribute between $238 and $317 each, not the $80 per head presented by Kolfage.

In light of these facts, we asked Kolfage several questions, including whether he accepted that — even if his $1 billion target was met in a timely manner — it still would not be sufficient to cover the cost of a border wall, and what purpose, therefore, his campaign could serve.

We also asked Kolfage who or what entity he had designated as the beneficiary of the fundraising, and to whose bank account the funds could be released. (The campaign page invites donors to send checks to Kolfage himself, and says that “100% of your donations will go to the Trump Wall.”) We did not receive any response to our questions.

The campaign page does stipulate that, “If we don’t reach our goal or come significantly close we will refund every single penny. We are working on a time frame to achieve.” However, the campaign does not have a termination date or explanation of what might count as “significantly close” to the $1 billion target.

GoFundMe does have a policy and mechanism whereby a donor can demand a refund in the event of “misuse” by the campaign manager or the intended beneficiary of the funds; but that policy is relatively narrowly defined and might not protect donors in all circumstances.

Sources
Merchant, Nomaan; Long, Colleen. “A Look at Status of Trump’s US-Mexico Border Wall.”
The Associated Press. 19 December 2018.

Chappell, Carmin. “As Trump Holds Out for Border Wall Funding From Congress, GoFundMe Raises Nearly $5 Million in 3 Days.”
CNBC News. 20 December 2018.

Griffiths, Brent D. “GoFundMe Campaign for Border Wall Aims for a Billion (At Least.)”
Politico. 19 December 2018.

Dupper-Macy, Staff Sgt. Brandy. “Injured Airman Finds Support in Palace HART.”
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base/U.S. Air Force. 22 August 2006.

Mascaro, Lisa; Daly, Matthew; Lucey, Catherine. “Trump Appears to Back Off His Demand for $5 Billion for Border Wall.”
PBS/The Associated Press. 19 December 2018.

Rampton, Roberta; Cornwell, Susan. “Trump Seeks $25 Billion for Border Wall, Offers ‘Dreamer’ Citizenship.”
Reuters. 24 January 2018.

Allen, Jonathan. “Trump Now Says Border Wall Could Cost as Little as $15 Billion, Pay for Itself.”
NBC News. 7 December 2018.

Werner, Erica; Paletta, Damian. “Trump Hardens Demand for $5 Billion for Border Wall as Shutdown Looms.”
The Washington Post. 26 November 2018.

Edwards Ainsley, Julia. “Exclusive — Trump Border ‘Wall’ to Cost $21.6 Billion, Take 3.5 Years to Build: Internal Report.”
Reuters. 9 February 2017.

Miroff, Nick; Werner, Erica. “First Phase of Trump Border Wall Gets $18 Billion Price Tag, in New Request to Lawmakers.”
The Washington Post. 5 January 2018.

Nixon, Ron. “Border Wall Could Cost 3 Times Estimates, Senate Democrats’ Report Says.”
The New York Times. 18 April 2017.

Collins, Ben; Zadrozny, Brandy. “Founder of Viral Fundraiser for Trump’s Border Wall Has Questionable News Past.”
NBC News. 20 December 2018.

Tynan, Dan. “Facebook Accused of Censorship After Hundreds of US Political Pages Purged.”
The Guardian. 17 October 2018.

Palma, Bethania. “GotNews and Other Disreputable Sites Sued for Naming Innocent Teen as the Charlottesville Killer.”
Snopes.com. 17 February 2018.

BY DAN MACGUILL
PUBLISHED 20 DECEMBER 2018
FILED UNDER BORDER SECURITY , BORDER WALL , DONALD TRUMP

Dear Reader,
Snopes.com has long been engaged in the battle against misinformation, an effort we could not sustain without support from our audience. Producing reliable fact-checking and thorough investigative reporting requires significant resources. We pay writers, editors, web developers, and other staff who work tirelessly to provide you with an invaluable service: evidence-based, contextualized analysis of facts. Help us keep Snopes.com strong. Make a direct contribution today. Learn More.

Donate with PayPal


THIS IS THE INTERESTING IF POSSIBLY UNTRUTHFUL “NEWS” SITE THAT KOLFAGE RUNS. TAKE A LOOK AT IT. IN THE FIRST STORY, HE POINTS OUT A HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS WHO, KOLFAGE SAYS, “WILL REGRET” THE FACT THAT SHE “STUCK HER NOSE INTO POLITICS.” THIS IDEA THAT HOLLYWOOD PEOPLE DON’T DESERVE TO EXPRESS THEIR OPINIONS, WHILE “CONSERVATIVES” HAVE EVERY RIGHT, EVEN WHEN THEY ARE LYING, IS SO VERY, VERY UNFAIR. IT CAN ONLY HURT THE AMERICAN BODY POLITIC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAAo5tSikn0
THIS IS A VIDEO OF KOLFAGE SPEAKING. HE’S FAIRLY PLEASANT, ACTUALLY, AS SINISE IS, AND HE HAS HAD A TERRIBLE INJURY. SINISE HAS PROVIDED HIM WITH A HOUSE CUSTOMIZED FOR HIS SPECIAL NEEDS.

SEE THE KOLFAGE SITE: https://rightwing.news/. THERE IS NO MENTION OF THE FALLACIOUS STORIES HE WROTE AND PUBLISHED DURING THE 2016 CAMPAIGN, OF COURSE. HE UNDOUBTEDLY FEELS THAT GIVING THE PUBLIC WHAT THEY WANT IS WHAT HE SHOULD DO, NO MATTER WHAT THAT IS.

https://rightwing.news/dem-gov-official-tries-to-secretly-destroy-random-female-wall-fund-donor-gets-wrecked/ -- THERE IS ONLY ONE PARAGRAPH TO THIS STORY, AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH “ONE RANDOM FEMALE” AT ALL. IT MERELY SAYS, WITH GREAT JOY, THAT THE WALL FUND HAS GATHERED MUCH MORE MONEY THAN THE “LIBERALS” BELIEVED THEY COULD – GOODY, GOODY GUM DROPS!! THEN IT LEADS RIGHT INTO THE DONOR WALL SO YOU CAN FOLLOW THE LEADER AND GIVE SOME MONEY THERE YOURSELF.

https://rightwing.news/rbg-undergoes-operation-to-remove-cancerous-nodules-from-lungs/ -- BREAKING: Ruth Bader Greensburg Rushed Into Emergency SurgeryPublishedon December 21, 2018 • By Right Wing News -- THIS APPEARS TO BE A REGULAR STORY, BUT THE EDITOR MISSPELLED HER LAST NAME IN THE HEADLINE FROM GINZBURG TO GREENSBURG. THEY HAD NOTHING TO INDICT HER ON, SO THEY SIMPLY SHOWED HER THE DISRESPECT OF NOT CONSIDERING HER IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO GET THE NAME RIGHT.

https://rightwing.news/democratic-operatives-created-fake-russian-bots-to-link-russia-to-roy-moore/
Democratic operatives created fake Russian bots to link Russia to Roy MoorePublishedon December 21, 2018 • By Right Wing News – THERE’S NO WRITTEN STORY TO THIS. JUST A FOX NEWS COMMENTATOR TRISH REGAN MAKING THIS STATEMENT WITH PROPER SHOCKED FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, WITH HER “EXPERT” ROBERT SICILIANO, TELLING HOW EASY IT IS TO MAKE A BOT. -- “FALSE FLAG” DEFENSE


MADDOW BLOG

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/21/18
Normal corruption scandal highlights distorted news climate
Rachel Maddow shares the details of an old-fashioned example of political self-dealing corruption reported in the New York Times that is almost refreshing in the era of globe-shaking Trump scandals. Duration: 19:10


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/21/18
Congressional GOP saves room for cheese amid shutdown crisis
Rachel Maddow reports on an emergency, all-hands-on-deck meeting called by Republicans on the House Rules Committee, with a government shutdown fast approaching, to discuss regulations on cheese. Duration: 3:53


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/21/18
Congress back to square one as Trump forces government shutdown
Frank Thorp, Capitol Hill reporter for NBC News, talks with Rachel Maddow about the failure by Republicans to avoid a government shutdown despite controlling the House, Senate, and White House, and notes the lack of any clear solution or compromise in the offing. Duration: 5:26


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/21/18
Hirono: Trump only wants an A.G. who will do his bidding
Senator Mazie Hirono talks with Rachel Maddow about a new report from CNN that Donald Trump berated acting-Attorney General Matt Whitaker for how the SDNY case against Michael Cohen made him look. Duration: 7:21


Embed
HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/21/18
Judge sparks intrigue by lifting gag order in Butina case
Rachel Maddow reports on the back-and-forth over the gag order in the case of Maria Butina ending with the judge's decision to lift the gag order, and what that might mean about the case and what the public finds out. Duration: 1:59


HELP THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/20/18
Trump infidelity to allies drives Mattis to resign in protest
Courtney Kube, national security and military reporter for NBC News, talks with Rachel Maddow about the backstory on Gen. Jim Mattis's resignation as Donald Trump's secretary of defense, and what it means for U.S. allies and initiatives around the world. Duration: 22:15


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/20/18
Mattis departure exposes chaos within Trump administration
Senator Chris Murphy talks with Rachel Maddow about how the resignation of Defense Secretary Mattis exposed the rift between Donald Trump and his national security apparatus on an already chaotic day when Trump's intransigence pushed Congress toward a shutdown of the federal government. Duration: 9:06


THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/20/18
Nadler: Deeply un-American to think president cannot be indicted
Rep. Jerry Nadler talks with Rachel Maddow about the threat to the Mueller investigation by Donald Trump's picks to run the Justice Department, and what he thinks of the OLC decision that a president cannot be indicted. Duration: 6:13