On August 6, a date that’s been called “a day of infamy,” construction began on Trump’s border wall through Big Bend National Park.
Under a $1.7 billion federal contract strongly opposed by Texas localsregardless of party affiliation, Southwest Valley started bulldozing for profit at 8 a.m., razing habitats of threatened species and destroying native vegetation. Running along parts of the Rio Grande, the project threatens mountain lions, black bears, and desert bighorn sheep that need back and forth access to habitat routes on both sides of the river. Conservationists have made clear that Trump’s 30-foot tall steel wall will sever and permanently destroy those routes.
Nearly as bad as the senseless destruction of habitat(s) is the expense. The project will cost two thirds of the entire, chronically underfunded National Park Service’s annual budget. And for what? The area sees almost no illicit cross-border traffic, accounts for only 1 % of annual U.S.-Mexico border crossings, and is the least busy of nine U.S. border sectors. The park was already endowed with natural barriers that cost nothing: Big Bend’s sheer cliffs and canyons rise up to 1,500 feet above the Rio Grande, making Trump’s wall redundant as well as ridiculous.
Trump, adept at breaking things without knowing how to fix them, is spending billions to destroy habitats and ruin the horizon of a beloved national park for fabricated “national security” concerns. Like his decision to bulldoze significant portions of the White House while framing it as “national security”as if he owned the place, Trump is wielding yet another destructive hammer blind to consequence.
A corrupt environmental dimwit does his worst
Over 100 Texas business owners sent a letter to Congress pleading for help, transparency, and a modicum of thought for what is being destroyed. “Big Bend has been called ‘Texas’ Gift to the Nation’ and generations of Texans have built their lives on this river,” they wrote. “We are asking you, our elected representatives, to protect our livelihoods, our river, and one of our state’s most treasured landscapes from needless and permanent destruction.”
Alas, such entreaties can’t compete with Trump lining his own pockets: Southwest Valley, the private contractor doing the unnecessary and unwanted work, is a subsidiary of Kiewit Corp, a big Trump donor.
Trump’s on again, off again giant steel wall threatens one of the most ecologically intact, biodiverse areas on the continent. The area's desert and mountain terrain support fragile ecosystems that recover slowly, if they recover at all. Extreme aridity, poor soils, and a delicate climate with hard scrabble plant life means that when soils are disturbed and vegetation is cleared, there will be no rapid regrowth, leaving the newly denuded landscape vulnerable to erosion for decades if not forever.
It will also disrupt the Rio Grande floodplain. Erecting a solid barrier along part of the river will act as a dam, completely altering how water flows through the valley. The administration therefore waived environmental review, even though waiver authority is strictly limited to “areas of high illegal entry,” making Trump’s waiver patently illegal.
What will it take for Americans to stop the madness?
A quick, partial list of Trump disasters after only 18 months comes easily: ICE agents have caused the deaths of at least 57 people, none of them hardened criminals. Hegseth’s murders on the high seas may trigger an ICC warrant for his arrest as a war criminal. The kidnapping of Venezuela’s president did nothing to help the people of Venezuela as $19 billion in seized oil profits remains unaccounted for. Trump’s unauthorized war in Iran has empowered the world’s most dangerous theocracy and spiked energy prices world wide. His economically illiterate tariffs have extracted thousands of dollars from American families, while his geopolitical ignorance and arrogance have pushed allies into regrouping without America. I could go on, but why?
The point is that these horrific things are happening, and are predicted to get worse, because we let them.
When I discussed the issue on Thom Hartmann’s show earlier this week (it’s about 10 minutes, you can watch it here), Hartmann characteristically pulled the camera back to widen the perspective. He noted that what Trump is doing — spending billions for unnecessary projects just to line the pockets of his donors — was the same modus operandi of other authoritarian regimes like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin. As Hartmann put it, this is how Orban and Putin “cement loyalty with their oligarchs.”
It’s exactly why Trump is wasting billions on unnecessary, incompetent, and unwanted projects — to keep his oligarchs wealthy, close, and in his debt.
Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.
