The man who raised more than $20 million on GoFundMe to help pay for portions of President Donald Trump’s border wall is not refunding the money as promised and claims he will build the wall himself.
Brian Kolfage launched the campaign in December, aiming to raise $1 billion toward the wall amid Trump’s impasse with Congress over funding for the proposed border wall.
In January, he promised to refund “every single penny” if it did not meet its $1 billion goal.
He later appeared to have a change of mind and told American Family Radio that he would “start breaking ground” on his own wall in April.
On Friday, The Daily Beast reported that “there’s no evidence that any construction has started” and donors are wondering what is happening with the money they gave.
Since most of the land on the border is owned by the federal government, Kolfage may have a difficult time building a wall there. But The Phoenix New Times reported that Kolfage’s company has not reached out to non-government landowners at all.
Kolfage insists his plan is still happening, just secret:
Kolfage wrote on Facebook that he has been “silent” on the wall because he is working on it in secret.
"WALL UPDATE: there’s no update because we are remaining silent for a very good reason. You all will have the best present very soon," he wrote. "When I guaranteed we’d build the wall I meant it, and we are working with many congressmen and senators to help us mitigate these issues from the left wing attack groups! We are in the homestretch and it’s on a need to know basis. We have been talking with Fox News and prime time shows to break the news for you, you’re going to see it very soon! And it’s going to be GLORIOUS!"
Kolfage has a history of scams:
“Making donors more nervous is that Kolfage has a history of participating in questionable endeavors. He was a prolific operator of hoax pages on Facebook, and money he raised in the past to help veterans’ programs in hospitals never actually went to those hospitals,” The Daily Beast reported.
“I knew Brian had some previous shady GoFundMe campaigns,” said one donor, Trump supporter Joshua Greene. “I felt more confident when he brought on other big names to work with him, I haven’t seen a tweet from ANY of them.”
