The Bizarre Outrage Over Rusted Border Wall Materials For Sale

Republican media circles have been in an uproar the past week over the sale of surplus border war material the federal government wasn’t using. According to top Texas Republicans, it represents a complete abdication of border security by the Biden Administration.

“Texas is going to court to prevent any border security materials from being unlawfully sold and to find out the truth about what the federal government may be doing to subvert border wall construction,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “President Trump has an overwhelming mandate from the American people to build the wall and I will do everything in my power to prevent any acts of sabotage by the outgoing administration.”   

President Joe Biden halted most new border wall construction during his presidency, though the federal government continued to build sections of wall appropriated by congress during the Trump Administration. This left the federal government with border wall panels it wasn’t using. Under current law, the government is supposed to sell or donate materials of this nature to recoup expenses. The Department of Defense has been doing this since March through the Ritchie Bros. company.

At first, Texas wasn’t interested in the materials. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said on X (formerly Twitter) that the Texas Facilities Commission had investigated the materials and deemed them too rusty and otherwise not worth shipping from their storage place in Arizona to Texas.

However, the conservative site Daily Wire heard about the sale and portrayed it as Biden selling off the wall to thwart the incoming Trump Administration. President-elect Donald Trump made the new border wall a symbol in his first term, promising that “Mexico is going to pay for it” (Mexico did not) and saying a massive new barrier would prevent undocumented immigration. Though Trump did build some new wall, much of it was shoddy and it did not stymy immigration.

Trump picked up the story from Daily Wire and took to social media to call it “almost a criminal act” that Biden was selling material for his wall. Texas top Republicans soon followed suit, with Patrick now claiming the panels were actually good and that the sale was “a Biden ruse to gain favor with the radical left open border crowd, showing Biden was fighting President Trump to the bitter end.”

To be clear, Texas has been buying unused border wall panels since 2021 when Biden took office and using them to construct barriers. There is nothing particularly noteworthy about these specific panels other than their sale can be framed as Biden stripping the border wall for parts before Trump takes office.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the sale of the materials is currently on hold until that happens. Meanwhile, Paxton is once again suing the federal government, claiming the sale was in violation of a congressional mandate. The Department of Defense has called Paxton’s lawsuit without “factual or legal basis.”