Halfway through President Trump's first term, as construction crews were busy installing hundreds of miles of barriers along the southern border, a puzzling edict came down from America's aesthete in chief. Trump wanted the border wall painted black. The president had already lost an argument about what his 'big, beautiful wall' should look like. Trump envisioned a solid-concrete structure, like the one Israel has built through the West Bank. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection already had a preferred prototype, consisting of vertical steel bars that, crucially, allowed border agents to see through to spot potential threats on the Mexican side. The competing visions pointed to a larger fundamental question: Whose border wall was it' How quaint that seems now. Trump in his second term treats federal property as his own, demolishing the East Wing of the White House, adding his name to the Kennedy Center, and ordering the construction of a 250-foot arch opposite the Lincoln...
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