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Oeditpus Rex

(42,745 posts)
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 03:06 AM Aug 20

DHS Secretary Noem says entire southern border wall will be painted black to stop people from climbing it

Source: CBS News

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that the entire wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is going to be painted black to make it hotter and deter illegal immigration — an idea she said was "specifically at the request" of President Trump.

Noem spoke during a visit to a portion of the wall in New Mexico, where she also picked up a roller brush to help out with the painting.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dhs-secretary-says-entire-southern-border-wall-to-be-painted-black-to-stop-people-from-climbing-it/



It'll be so hot, those wooden ladders will burst into flame!

61 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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DHS Secretary Noem says entire southern border wall will be painted black to stop people from climbing it (Original Post) Oeditpus Rex Aug 20 OP
So CBP will no longer need daytime jobs taxi Aug 20 #1
They shouldn't paint the whole thing black nuxvomica Aug 20 #2
... Oeditpus Rex Aug 20 #4
Beep! Beep! Ray Bruns Aug 20 #11
At this rate, nuking hurricanes will become a real thing. Grokenstein Aug 20 #3
The painting contractor must have made a huge bribe. Irish_Dem Aug 20 #5
Yeah...my first thought too. Trump going to line his pockets over this too.... Bengus81 Aug 20 #20
Trump does nothing unless it benefits him personally. Irish_Dem Aug 20 #23
Now the MAGAs will have to come up with some plausible explanation for this stupidity Prairie Gates Aug 20 #6
Well, really, it's all about rust prevention, you know, in a desert, where it rarely rains. Mawspam2 Aug 20 #7
You really expect stories like this to be from the Onion. Nope, just Trump world. mackdaddy Aug 20 #8
Exactly what I thought orangecrush Aug 20 #31
Specifically at the request of President Trump Blue Dotty Aug 20 #9
I thought Trump's favorite color was tacky gold? RealityChik Aug 20 #35
sure, cool story, bro... Javaman Aug 20 #10
as a southwest dweller I find it interesting the mythology travelingthrulife Aug 20 #22
yup, texas here. locals down at the boarder call it the photo op wall LOL nt Javaman Aug 20 #30
Black is a much better background color Oeditpus Rex Aug 21 #36
Black and Orange! Old Testament Libera Aug 23 #45
I think I heard a song about this Ray Bruns Aug 20 #12
I see a dumb wall and he wants to paint it black C_U_L8R Aug 20 #28
Black radiates heat better,too. Mopar151 Aug 20 #13
I heard the cartels are rolling out sophisticated countermeasures already..... Red Mountain Aug 20 #14
Oven mitts lildDemz Aug 20 #15
Reminds me of the times after his foolish partial wall was built, Mexican kids were timing themselves travelingthrulife Aug 20 #19
Also walking to the gaps in the fence. Pisces Aug 20 #26
Wait till Noem finds out that the Rio Grande is a RIVER! 70sEraVet Aug 20 #16
Trump wanted alligators and snakes in the water... sop Aug 24 #55
Another excellent waste of taxpayer money. sinkingfeeling Aug 20 #17
No worry! Mexico will pay for it. dedl67 Aug 24 #54
Well, that is breathtakingly stupid travelingthrulife Aug 20 #18
Just paint it clear and they won't see it and face plant right into it and easier to round up! Brainfodder Aug 20 #21
Another Road Runner - Coyote kinda scheme (n.t.) Oeditpus Rex Aug 21 #38
Paint It Black iamnoone Aug 20 #24
LOL, too ridiculous. That wall will be hot no matter what color it is. Fla Dem Aug 20 #25
Is this satire? Amaryllis Aug 20 #27
Why even bother Hey Joe Aug 20 #29
MaddowBlog-With black paint on border barriers, Trump and Noem are repeating a familiar mistake LetMyPeopleVote Aug 20 #32
Donald Trump "understands" lots of things that are completely wrong. tanyev Aug 24 #52
Ever hear of gloves Krusty? Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Aug 20 #33
Guess what trump? SandyDoc Aug 20 #34
This is so mind-numbingly stupid sakabatou Aug 21 #37
This is another dumb trump idea LetMyPeopleVote Aug 21 #39
Blindingly stupid lackey pleasing a demented idiot. mn9driver Aug 21 #40
Well, they made it tall so people wouldn't climb it. And that worked out well... Aristus Aug 21 #41
LOL-Noem can only paint one side of this fence and Mexico is having fun painting the other side LetMyPeopleVote Aug 22 #42
Paint one side of the fence intelpug Aug 23 #48
Now he'll sue Mexico for hurting his beautiful fence. travelingthrulife Aug 24 #50
SOUNDS SO......CHRISTIAN Skittles Aug 22 #43
Won't help in the winter Old Testament Libera Aug 23 #44
I bet they'll use undocumented workers to paint it fujiyamasan Aug 23 #46
No sense of style kiranon Aug 23 #47
yeah because no one ever climbs at night Skittles Aug 24 #49
Is it true they're painting the US side not the Mexican side? -nt CrispyQ Aug 24 #51
Kristi is such a stereotypical moron. mdbl Aug 24 #53
Are they going to roll paint on by hand like she was doing? nt Hotler Aug 24 #56
Oven mitts Walleye Aug 24 #57
When Racist People Get High And Brainstorm DrFunkenstein Aug 24 #58
Who still wants to come here? truthisfreedom Aug 24 #59
There is some amazing artwork on the Mexican side of the wall LetMyPeopleVote Aug 24 #60
Fascists are fucking morons. LetMyPeopleVote Aug 28 #61

taxi

(2,498 posts)
1. So CBP will no longer need daytime jobs
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 03:12 AM
Aug 20

Now all that's left to do is put up signs stating that all daytime crossings have been rescheduled to nighttime.

nuxvomica

(13,629 posts)
2. They shouldn't paint the whole thing black
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 03:28 AM
Aug 20

Just black arches that look like tunnels. That way people, and coyotes, will just smash into them while road runners will still get through. I don't know why the stable genius whose uncle taught Ted Kaczynski at MIT didn't think of that.

Prairie Gates

(6,278 posts)
6. Now the MAGAs will have to come up with some plausible explanation for this stupidity
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 06:28 AM
Aug 20

They really have to bear a heavy burden, constantly justifying these boneheaded ideas. One almost feels sorry for them.

mackdaddy

(1,863 posts)
8. You really expect stories like this to be from the Onion. Nope, just Trump world.
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 07:38 AM
Aug 20

You know this really is from the dear leader. Right up there with the injecting bleach ideas.

Blue Dotty

(158 posts)
9. Specifically at the request of President Trump
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 07:43 AM
Aug 20

I suppose if he asked you to shoot puppies, you would do that too? Oh, never mind.

RealityChik

(394 posts)
35. I thought Trump's favorite color was tacky gold?
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 04:57 PM
Aug 20

And besides, who wants to come to the US, anyway? Nothing worth risking your life for. Oh well, ketchup shows up better on black anyway…

Javaman

(64,489 posts)
10. sure, cool story, bro...
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 07:50 AM
Aug 20

considering the "wall" isn't much of a wall but a bad fence with lots and lots of holes and almost all of it incomplete.

travelingthrulife

(3,268 posts)
22. as a southwest dweller I find it interesting the mythology
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 10:25 AM
Aug 20

surrounding the border and this wall.

There is no wall except at the photo-op sites. There are no hordes of immigrants crossing the border.

45. Black and Orange!
Sat Aug 23, 2025, 12:49 AM
Aug 23

Just in time for Halloween!

I bet Trump wants to be appointed the Great Pumpkin too.

C_U_L8R

(48,085 posts)
28. I see a dumb wall and he wants to paint it black
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 11:23 AM
Aug 20

No coloreds anymore, he wants them to turn back

Mopar151

(10,332 posts)
13. Black radiates heat better,too.
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 08:09 AM
Aug 20

Junkyard science! If you leave a chrome plated object out in the sun, next to a piece of rusty iron, the chrome part will get much hotter!
Satin black over rust will stay cooler than super shiny high gloss black.

Rechargeable saws will cut through the bars easily enough, anyway.

Red Mountain

(2,185 posts)
14. I heard the cartels are rolling out sophisticated countermeasures already.....
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 08:22 AM
Aug 20

you know......gloves.

Real high tech arms race going on down there. Hope Trump can keep up.

travelingthrulife

(3,268 posts)
19. Reminds me of the times after his foolish partial wall was built, Mexican kids were timing themselves
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 09:48 AM
Aug 20

to see who could get over it fastest. It was like 20 seconds

sop

(16,043 posts)
55. Trump wanted alligators and snakes in the water...
Sun Aug 24, 2025, 09:31 AM
Aug 24

(NYT) "The president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him."

When Trump was asked about the alligators during one of his border photo ops, he responded crocodiles would be better since they were more aggressive.

travelingthrulife

(3,268 posts)
18. Well, that is breathtakingly stupid
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 09:46 AM
Aug 20

All the hordes of imaginary immigrants will certainly stay away now!

Brainfodder

(7,781 posts)
21. Just paint it clear and they won't see it and face plant right into it and easier to round up!
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 09:59 AM
Aug 20

So obvious!

Hey Joe

(226 posts)
29. Why even bother
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 12:24 PM
Aug 20

In six months you won’t be able to pay anyone to enter this country.
This regime has already made America as popular as syphilis .
Save the money, we’re toxic enough with a president who rolls out the red carpet for
murderers.

LetMyPeopleVote

(169,852 posts)
32. MaddowBlog-With black paint on border barriers, Trump and Noem are repeating a familiar mistake
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 12:51 PM
Aug 20

Last edited Wed Aug 20, 2025, 02:25 PM - Edit history (1)

The last time the president ordered officials to apply black paint to border barriers, it was an expensive failure. Naturally, he’s trying it again.

As you see reports about Trump/Noem painting border barriers black, don’t forget the recent history:

When Trump made this same demand five years ago, it was an expensive and wasteful failure. True to form, he’s repeating the same mistake, expecting a different result. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-08-20T15:58:42.730Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/black-paint-border-barriers-trump-noem-are-repeating-familiar-mistake-rcna226052

The enormous amount of new spending will also includes money for, of all things, the president’s preferred paint color. The Associated Press reported:

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that the entire border wall along the southern border with Mexico is going to be painted black to make it hotter and deter illegal immigration — and she credited President Trump with the idea. Noem spoke during a visit to a portion of the wall in New Mexico, where she also picked up a roller brush to help out with the painting.


The Cabinet secretary added that the paint project is being done “specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black, it gets even warmer, and it will make it even harder for people to climb.”

There was, however, one relevant detail that Noem neglected to mention: The Trump administration already tried this same idea, and it didn’t work.......

Trump first started pushing the idea in 2019, at which point administration officials tried to explain to him that the painting project would waste too much time and money in pursuit of a goal that wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway. Border officials were confident at the time that Trump understood their concerns and would focus his energies elsewhere.

They were mistaken. In 2020, when the president should’ve been working on the pandemic, he ordered his team to start applying black paint to the barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, insisting that it would make the barriers hot to the touch and discourage climbers.

To the surprise of no one, Trump was wrong and those who tried to discourage him were right. Not only did the black paint fail to discourage breaches, it also started peeling off about a year and a half after it was applied. The whole endeavor was an expensive waste.

And so, naturally, the Trump administration is giving it another try, expecting a different result, spending a lot of American tax dollars on an initiative that only makes sense in the president's imagination.

SandyDoc

(3 posts)
34. Guess what trump?
Wed Aug 20, 2025, 02:03 PM
Aug 20

People are no longer trying to get into this country since you took over and began making it into a shit pile. Sorry!!!

mn9driver

(4,772 posts)
40. Blindingly stupid lackey pleasing a demented idiot.
Thu Aug 21, 2025, 03:23 PM
Aug 21

Because it would never occur to someone to climb the wall after dark.

intelpug

(147 posts)
48. Paint one side of the fence
Sat Aug 23, 2025, 05:46 PM
Aug 23

No, Actually the fence do's not run right on the border its self but is set back some distance so for a way's the side facing Mexico is still US territory

44. Won't help in the winter
Sat Aug 23, 2025, 12:46 AM
Aug 23

Texas, NM, Arizona, and CA borders have fall and winter.
And early spring. And night as well as day. It won't be hot all the time.

kiranon

(1,734 posts)
47. No sense of style
Sat Aug 23, 2025, 02:23 PM
Aug 23

Should incorporate art into the wall or at least better color or colors. Big beautiful wall is down right ugly. And unnecessary waste of money. At least, turn it into a work of art. (sarcasm alert)

DrFunkenstein

(8,832 posts)
58. When Racist People Get High And Brainstorm
Sun Aug 24, 2025, 11:22 AM
Aug 24

How this idea got beyond the "puff and pass" phase, I'll never understand. These guys were obviously listening to the Stones and wrote down "Paint It Black!" in Sharpie before they nodded off.

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