Trump reportedly wants to paint his border wall black so it can absorb heat and get too hot for people to climb

Associated Press/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump reviews border wall prototypes in San Diego in March 2018. He has been "micromanaging" plans for his border wall "down to the smallest design details," The Washington Post reported.

• President Donald Trump has a lot of views on what his long-desired border wall should look like, The Washington Post reported.
• He has instructed aides and engineers to paint the bollards black so it would get too hot to climb in the summer, make them pointed so climbers would get hurt, and narrow the openings in between gates, the Post added.
• He is "micromanaging the project down to the smallest design details," the Post said, adding that he had woken up officials in the early mornings to discuss his ideas in the past.
• Trump's desired border wall has proven to be very expensive. Democratic lawmakers have been fighting to limit the amount of military money Trump is spending on the wall.
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President Donald Trump is "micromanaging" plans for his long-desired border wall, and instructed engineers to paint the bollards black so they would get too hot to scale in the summer, and to install pointed tips on the wall so that people would get hurt trying to climb it, The Washington Post reported.

He wants to paint the wall's bollards "flat black," because the dark color can absorb heat in the summer and make them too hot for people to climb, he recently told White House aides, Department of Homeland Security officials, and military engineers, the Post reported.

The president also called for its tips to be pointed and not round, the Post said, adding that he had described "in graphic terms the potential injuries that border crossers might receive."

Adrees Latif/REUTERS

People on the Mexico side of the border wall from the US near San Diego in June 2018.

'Micromanaging the project down to the smallest design details'

Trump has also complained that the current prototype for the wall has too many gates for people to pass through, and called for those openings to be narrowed, the Post reported.

He also wants the entire structure to be "physically imposing but also aesthetically pleasing," the Post said.

He is "micromanaging the project down to the smallest design details," and on multiple occasions even woke former Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in the early morning to discuss his plans, the Post reported.

However, his instructions and suggestions have changed so many times that aides are getting confused as to what he actually wants to do with the wall, the Post said.

Business Insider has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Trump at a rally in El Paso, Texas, in February 2019. The border wall has been a key talking point for him and his supporters.

'A personal slush fund to fulfill a campaign promise'

Trump's desired border wall - which has been a major policy and talking point since his 2016 presidential campaign - has come with a steep cost, both financially and politically.

Since the president declared a national emergency in February to divert military funds to build his wall, the Department of Defense has redirected billions of dollars from operations, including counter-narcotics and ballistic missile and surveillance plane systems, to fund the project.

High-ranking House Democrats are fighting to cap the amount of Pentagon money the Trump administration can take for the project.

Associated Press/Charles Rex Arbogast

Supporters chanting "build that wall" at a rally for then-Republican presidential candidate Trump in Rothschild, Wisconsin, in April 2016.

Rep. John Garamendi, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, suggested in a Thursday statement cited by Defense News that the president was "using the MILCON [military construction] budget and other critical projects as a personal slush fund to fulfill a campaign promise."

Garamendi, whose subcommittee oversees military construction, presented a bill on Wednesday to cap military spending at $250 million per national emergency, Defense News reported.

Between late December and early January, the US government partially shut down for a record 35 days when Trump rejected Congress' short-term funding extension because it did not include money for his border wall.

Read Business Insider's full coverage of Trump's border wall here.