[Bare with me, I am going to try not rolling my eyes out loud too loudly here.]
Who can forget the Brian Kolfage GoFundMe Wall raising $20 million that “unexpectedly” imploded into the announcement, even before the projected deadline expired for the GoFundMe page, “that he will instead use the money to finance a new nonprofit group that will build the wall itself—or at least a couple miles of it…”?
Now Kolfage, a prolific operator of conspiracy theory Facebook pages, has recruited a team of prominent figures in President Donald Trump’s orbit to run a new 501(c)(4) nonprofit, named We Fund The Wall, to do some wall construction of its own.
The new group’s board, Kolfage announced on Friday, includes Erik Prince, the founder of infamous military contract Blackwater; David Clarke, the former scandal-plagued sheriff of Milwaukee County; Fox News contributor Sara Carter; Tom Tancredo, an immigration hardliner and former Colorado congressman; and former Kansas Secretary of State and voter fraud crusader Kris Kobach.
…
In an update to Kolfage’s The Trump Wall page on Friday, he writes, “The federal government won’t be able to accept our donations anytime soon.”He claims he has been in contact with ‘government officials’ and that he has put together a “highly experienced team” and he “is highly confident” he and his team “can complete significant segments of the wall in less time, and for far less money, than the federal government, while meeting or exceeding all required regulatory, engineering, and environmental specifications.”
TNB
WeBuildTheWall, Inc., was incorporated as a nonprofit on December 28, 2018. It wasn’t until January 11 Kolfage, after hitting $20 million, well below his stated goal, announced to his donors that he was taking the money and would instead incorporate his new nonprofit business venture.
According to the rules of GoFundMe, Kolfage has now said their goals have changed from the original plan, therefore, according to the rules, everyone’s money will automatically be refunded, unless that is, they specifically agree they now want their donations to go to Kolfage’s new project, otherwise, the money is returned.
While GoFundMe proactively sends an email to every donor asking them if they want to accept the redirection of their funds or, if there is no response, the money is automatically returned since the project failed its original intent, Kolfage is busy promoting his new project, the brand new “Florida Corporation named “We Build the Wall, Inc.” at ‘webuildthewall.us‘ website and on his continuous stable of FaceBook pages that he is specifically banned from, but still can be operated as long as they are not administered by Brian Kolfage.
Several pages of which were “promoting the border wall fundraiser” and “were also recently removed because they violated rules regarding misrepresentation.”
TNB
As people finally start questioning where is the wall, where is the land, when will it start, where is the money? they are now being told the land is in a super secret place.
Seriously, by all accounts that is what they are being told by the new “highly experienced team,” who claimed just last week on their “WeBuildtheWall” Facebook page that, once again, they are ‘very close to breaking ground,’ but it’s just that now “the information about the private wall’s location had to be “secure” in order to confound liberal foes,” according to a new Daily Beast report.
“VERY soon we can release the details but have to keep that information secure for the time being as to prevent giving our detractors a heads up to derail our progress,” the statement reads. “Soon, everyone will have the update they’ve been waiting for which we can’t wait to share. This updated delay is just the unfortunate process of building a controversial barrier some people don’t want to happen.”
Kolfage has been all over the map since he and his awesome new board took the GoFundMe money and absconded set up their WeBuildTheWall Facebook page to go with their 501(c)(4) nonprofit We Fund The Wall. He told Politico in February that ‘according to our experts” they “should be turning dirt on this thing by May 1, June 1 at the latest.”
Then on March 21 Kolfage did an interview with American Family Radio, saying the Facebook page group would “start breaking ground” in April and promised “to invite donors to a groundbreaking ceremony.”
Now donors are starting to question what the hold up is all about, or at the very least, why are there no updates.
Joshua Green donated a small amount back in December. Of course, we know he was alone in the GoFundMe Wall fever that took hold of people by their throats to the tune of $20 million.
“The lack of updates is very concerning,” Greene wrote in an email to Right Richter.
Why no updates on the status of the wall? I have a feeling this is a scam.— Billy Costigan (@BroncosNerd) April 30, 2019
“Show me video of wall being built and I’ll pony up my next donation,” reads one angry Facebook comment.
“Where is the rest of the money going?” reads another.
Kolfage’s own history is adding to the donors’ nervousness and frustrations over lack of information.
Of course, it’s not like Kolfage and his new board members are not out there. The Phoenix New Times reported that in February that Kolfage, Kris Koback, Steve Bannon, former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, and Breitbart’s Texas Managing editor Brandon Darby were among other “notable figures in right-wing and anti-immigrant political spheres, had shared a stage at an event held just south of Tucson.”
Arizona resident and anti-immigrant activist Glenn Spencer contacted Kris Kobach three day later on February 11.
At the town hall-style event, the group spoke to assembled members of the Quail Creek Republican Club, and raised money — ostensibly for the construction of a privately funded wall along the nation’s border with Mexico.
Spencer had just watched a video of the event.
“Kris, I watched the Town Hall in Tucson. This is my general impression of what I saw:
“Ineptitude of a scale capable of creating a breading [sic] ground for charges of fraud — and a defense lawyer’s gold mine.”
WeBuildtheWall claims to be operating with the “blessing” of President Trump, with Kobach serving as its conduit to the White House.
The group says it has spent the past few months working to secure private building sites for a privately funded and privately owned border wall — to protect the United States from insurgent Latin American hordes — in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
The reality, Phoenix New Times has found, is that there is an incredibly small amount of actual international border in private hands in Arizona — and none in areas where federal border wall does not already exist.
The vast majority of the border in Arizona exists on land owned by the federal government — land where private citizens cannot build their own walls.Few private landowners on, or very near, the border had heard of WeBuildtheWall before being approached by New Times. Fewer still had any interest in having sections of private wall built on their property.
In February, WeBuildtheWall indicated that its first building site — covering a substantial stretch of the border — would be in Arizona. The group repeatedly has stated its intent to break ground on its first site in April.
After knowing the Daily Beast had been trying to contact Kolfage, or anyone in the group, about progress for a month, after having to know of the discontent on their own Facebook page postings that people were voicing concern and doubt, after setting up the perfect set up of those dastardly ‘detractors’ and ‘liberal foes,’ knowing the DB had been asking for a comment for Friday’s article, after the Friday published DB’s article picked up notice, on Saturday Kolfage finally decided to respond to DB’s writer Will Sommer via Twitter:
Omg this is PERFECT timing by the liberal rag news site. They are about to look more stupid than @hillaryclinton on election night 2016! I have the popcorn in the microwave at this moment 🍿@willsommer you are an idiot! pic.twitter.com/GevpMdEIUN
— Brian Kolfage (@BrianKolfage) May 10, 2019
Sommer replies to Kolfage saying, “You already missed the deadline by weeks.”
Hey will, you have been duped by Steve Bannon. Bahaha u think we aren’t 5 steps ahead of you hacks?! Your trash article only makes it more glorious for taking the bait
— Brian Kolfage (@BrianKolfage) May 11, 2019
The Phoenix New Times also had this to add to the rest of the conversation back in March:
As anticipated construction approaches, the group has been tight-lipped — speaking almost exclusively with friendly right-wing media, offering little by way of concrete detail, and guarding the prospective landing site of the alt-right’s private border wall as if it were a state secret.
But secrets don’t keep, and are especially perishable along the border line, where even the most mundane detail of daily life is politicized, and the banal is painted with lurid detail.
New Times, through interviews with border-area landowners, learned of a site where WeBuildtheWall has been negotiating to build its wall.
Its investors may be disappointed.
And more than constructing a barrier at the border, according to interviews and documents, it appears that WeBuildtheWall is a fundraising machine geared toward political activity related to the 2020 presidential election.
Stay tuned. Kolfage and his super-duper board are seriously super close to breaking ground any day now. That will be a super-duper miracle day indeed.
[Total epic failure on my part not rolling my eyes out loud too loudly. Maybe I’ll do better next time.]