President Donald Trump announced Wednesday, presumably by mistake, that Colorado is getting a wall.
Speaking at the Shale Insight Conference in Pittsburgh, Trump told the crowd:
“Massive new investments are bringing thousands of energy jobs to states like Ohio and West Virginia, that we mentioned that we love. New Mexico, which I think we’re going to win. You know why we’re going to win New Mexico? Because they want safety on their border, and they didn’t have it. And we’re building a wall on the border of New Mexico. And we’re building a wall in Colorado. We’re building a beautiful wall – a big one that really works. You can’t get over. You can’t get under. And we’re building a wall in Texas. And we’re not building a wall in Kansas, but they get the benefit of the walls we just mentioned.”
The audience responded with a standing ovation.
Colorado is about 430 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, where Trump promised to build a wall in the 2016 election. According to Politifact, the administration has replaced 60 miles of old fencing but has not added any portions of a new barrier, as of August.
Soon after Trump's comments, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis essentially confirmed there were no such plans for a wall, tweeting:
"Well this is awkward ...Colorado doesn’t border Mexico. Good thing Colorado now offers free full day kindergarten so our kids can learn basic geography."
Late Wednesday night, Trump tweeted about his comments:
Officially, blocking Colorado's border did happen once before. During a 10-day period in 1936, National Guard troops turned away penniless laborers who tried to come to Colorado from the New Mexico border.
You can read more on that piece of Colorado's history in this story, written by 9NEWS reporter Jeremy Jojola.
Plenty of people on Twitter had thoughts on a Colorado wall. Here's a sampling:
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Full Episodes of Next with Kyle Clark