President Donald Trump, who got called out on Twitter for mistakenly saying he was building a border wall in Colorado during a speech Wednesday, insisted in a tweet early Thursday morning that he was just kidding.
“(Kiddingly) We’re building a Wall in Colorado”(then stated, “we’re not building a Wall in Kansas but they get the benefit of the Wall we’re building on the Border”) refered to people in the very packed auditorium, from Colorado & Kansas, getting the benefit of the Border Wall!” Trump tweeted.
The initial comment, which drew cheers and applause from supporters at the speech at an energy conference, grabbed the attention of Trump critics who leaped on the chance to point out the geographical gaffe.
“And we’re building a wall on the border of New Mexico and we’re building a wall in Colorado, we’re building a beautiful wall, a big one that really works that you can’t get over, you can’t get under and we’re building a wall in Texas. We’re not building a wall in Kansas but they get the benefit of the walls we just mentioned,” Trump said, according to a transcript.
Most recently, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, mocked Trump on Facebook, saying, “Good thing Colorado now offers free full day kindergarten so our kids can learn basic geography.”
According to the Migration Policy Institute, immigrants make up nearly 10 percent of all residents in Colorado, making it the state with the 20th-highest foreign born population.
(MORE: Legal immigrants with jobs in the marijuana industry are being denied US citizenship)Of the 9.8 percent of foreign-born individuals in Colorado, roughly 53.1 percent are from the Americas with 40.8 percent from Mexico, specifically.
Despite being more than 1000 miles from the nearest border, Colorado recently passed HB19-1124, or the Protect Colorado Residents From Federal Government Overreach act, in an effort to become a sanctuary state for immigrants.