The Good News About The Border Wall GoFundMe Receiving $3 Million In 4 Days

By Jodi Smith | Politics | December 20, 2018 |

By Jodi Smith | Politics | December 20, 2018 |

On December 16, 2018, veteran airman Brian Kolfage decided to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise the funds to build Trump’s border wall. As of today, December 20, 2018, the GoFundMe has received pledges more than $3 million from over 60,000 donors toward the $1 billion end goal. The funding amount in just four days caused a ruckus that lit up Twitter and news sites.

In the GoFundMe listing, Kolfage links multiple times to his site and social media accounts. He lists a mailing address for individuals who want to send checks directly to him but made payable to GoFund the Wall.

He also shared air dates for interviews scheduled after the campaign went live, like the one tonight with Laura Ingraham on Fox News. Another Kolfage interview takes place tomorrow morning on Fox.

In the description, Kolfage assures donors that he is in contact with the Trump administration and working to obtain a coordinator to receive the funds. If the $1 billion mark is reached, the money will go directly to a member of Trump’s administration.

Those who are worried about the GoFundMe reaching its goal should be aware of a few variables.

The estimates Trump provided for the building of the wall range from $5 billion to $20 billion, with a Democrat appraisal as high as $70 billion.

According to Kolfage:

Republican Representative Steven Palazzo of Mississippi is introducing legislation to direct the Treasury Department to issue government savings bonds which would allow us to fund the wall with this method. This is just one option, there are others on the table being discussed.

Does this mean that the legislation is the crux of the GoFundMe campaign’s success? Citizens can donate “Gifts to the United States” via the Treasury Department, but those funds enter into a general account and may finance any purpose as the government sees fit.

Further, legal documentation holding the government to using the funds for only a border wall has yet to be drafted or found binding in a court of law.

As far as the hypocrisy of the fund itself, supporters of Trump are paying for a wall that he promised Mexico would fund. They are pledging large and small amounts of money to ensure immigrants cannot enter into the United States to become citizens legally but refuse to take the same money and invest it in the people already in their country.

How much good could come from the money raised by distributing it to homeless veterans? What about paying off school lunch balances in poor districts? Perhaps assisting the elderly and the infirm with medical costs would be a better outcome?

While it is an individual’s discretion concerning the use of their income, I worry most about what this campaign says about our fellow Americans and their lack of empathy. I have concerns about the priorities of people who prefer to erect a monument to exclusion and turn away from real issues plaguing their neighbors daily.

I also have hope.

Well, @HoarseWisperer, you're in luck. I have just started a GoFundMe for ladders to get over Trump's wall, and if we, um, don't reach our "goal", all proceeds will go to @RAICESTEXAS.

And you are, of course, credited for the idea: https://t.co/CHMKJZqj25 https://t.co/ByR6NpLK4U

— Charlotte Clymer🏳️‍🌈 (@cmclymer) December 20, 2018

Trump supporters are ecstatic that a GoFundMe to build Trump's idiotic wall has raised over $2.5M in 3 days.

What they don't realize is that if it continues at this rate, they will reach $5b by the year 2034 and this will only build approximately 30% of the wall.#GoFundTheWall

— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) December 20, 2018