Triple-amputee Veteran’s GoFundMe to Pay for Trump’s Border Wall Has Raised Over $5 Million in 3 Days

By: J.D. Simkins , Military Times, 20 December 2018

 

President Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego, California, earlier this year. A Purple Heart recipient has started a GoFundMe drive with the goal of paying for wall construction. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

 

An airman who survived the most catastrophic war wounds in the service’s history has started a fundraiser — with a goal of $1 billion — in an effort to pay for the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

 

Brian Kolfage, a triple-amputee Purple Heart recipient, started the GoFundMe account, “We The People Will Fund The Wall,” amidst ongoing deliberations on how the border wall, a campaign promise of President Donald Trump, will actually be funded.

 

Trump most recently stated it will be U.S. troops who are tasked with building the wall if Democrats refuse to fund the project, a notion the president emphasized over a series of Dec. 19 tweets discussing border security.

 

Kolfage, meanwhile, had enough of the delays resulting from back-and-forth funding discussions, and decided to encourage the American public — specifically those who voted for President Trump — to pay for the controversial project.

 

“If the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall,” Kolfage wrote on the fundraiser page. “That equates to roughly $5 billion, Even if we get half, that’s half the wall. We can do this.”

 

Donations have been pouring in since Kolfage started the fundraiser three days ago, already generating more than $5 million from a total of more than 82,000 donors.

 

Kolfage says 100 percent of the donations will go toward wall construction, and that a point of contact within the Trump administration has been made to secure "where all the funds will go upon completion.”

 

 

 

 

 

The Kolfage family. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Kolfage)

 

 

 

 

In the event the goal — or a total sum in the neighborhood of the goal — is not reached, Kolfage says every donor will receive a full refund.

“This won’t be easy, but it’s our duty as citizens,” he says.

Kolfage became the most catastrophically wounded airman to survive his injuries when, while deployed to Iraq on Sept. 11, 2004, a 107mm enemy rocket impacted just three feet away from him.

Both of his legs were instantly shredded, he lost his dominant right hand and his lung collapsed.

Medics would go on to perform hours of life-saving surgery before placing Kolfage on a flight to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, where he arrived only 36 hours after being wounded — the fastest medevac to the U.S. from a war zone in history.

Kolfage completed rehab and walked out of the hospital only 11 months after being wounded.

“As a veteran who has given so much — three limbs — I feel deeply invested to this nation to ensure future generations have everything we have today,” he wrote on the fundraiser page.

A donation of this scale to fund a federal project may be unprecedented, but it would not mark the first time the government has accepted large contributions from private donors.

Billionaire David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Washington-based private-equity firm, the Carlyle Group, donated nearly $40 million between restoration and preservation projects on the Washington Monument, the Marine Corps War Memorial’s Iwo Jima sculpture, President James Madison’s historic Virginia residence, Robert E. Lee’s Arlington House and the White House Visitor Center.

J.D. Simkins is a writer and editor for Military Times who was a Marine scout observer from 2004-2008. He ugly cried when the Washington Capitals won the 2018 Stanley Cup.

As of 0900 hours 20 December 2018 more than $11,661,495 had been raised. Most of our readers also know Brian is a Security Forces Defender.

"AFSFA note: The effort raised over $20 Million from 325,000 plus donors by 11 January 2019. Due to the federal governments inability to currently accept the funds there are now new options open to those who donated so their donations can continue to support the wall. The link below clarifies the options available. Brian and his highly experienced team have pushed on undeterred. https://www.gofundme.com/TheTrumpWall  "

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