Storm causes erosion at Trump backers' private border wall

HOUSTON (AP) — Weeks after it was criticized by President Donald Trump as “done to make me look bad,” a private border wall built by his supporters in South Texas has suffered new erosion in a weekend tropical storm that was the project's first major weather test.

Heavy rain and winds from Hanna left behind wide gashes in the land in front of the fence, which is next to the Rio Grande, the now-swollen river that separates Texas and Mexico. While the fence's posts are all still standing, some of the holes in front of the fence are several feet deep, suggesting that part of the barrier could become unstable, according to the project's opponents.

Despite a widely shared viral video purporting to show the storm taking down a border wall, neither the private fence nor government-built border barriers were knocked down by the storm. U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Monday said that video shows a border wall construction site in New Mexico in June.

But a legal battle continues over the soundness of the private border wall, which was built in Texas' Rio Grande Valley by North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, a company that has since received a $1.3 billion wall contract from the U.S. government, the largest award to date. The project has been regularly promoted by We Build the Wall, a nonprofit group set up by Trump supporters whose online fundraiser has collected more than $25 million. We Build the Wall organizers have repeatedly claimed they have the president's support.

A tweet sent by Trump indicates otherwise.

“I disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads,” he tweeted July 12 after initial reports of erosion along the fence. “It was only done to make me look bad.”

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