Trump Criticizes Biden For Selling Border Wall Materials, Calls It 'Almost A Criminal Act'

President-elect Donald Trump has criticized the Biden administration for selling unused materials meant to build the border wall, calling it "almost a criminal act."

Congress had passed bipartisan legislation last year requiring the materials to be sold.

During a freewheeling news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Monday, Trump criticized reports about unused border wall materials being auctioned by the Defense Department. His remarks followed Republican outrage on social media over the issue, the Washington Post reported.

After Biden stopped construction on Trump's border wall, leftover materials, including steel and concrete segments, were abandoned at construction sites near the southern border for years. Exposed to weather, these materials remained unused and the Pentagon has since been working to dispose of them.

According to a defense official, who shared the information anonymously, around 60% of the unused border wall materials were requested and received by border states and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The remaining materials were sold to GovPlanet, an online auction site.

Recently, online sales of the materials sparked outrage among conservatives, prompting Trump to comment on the issue.

He suggested that his incoming administration could use the materials being sold in the auctions, while pledging to resume building the border wall, a key promise from his first presidential campaign.

Trump incorrectly claimed Monday that his administration built 571 miles of border wall, though the Government Accountability Office reported the actual figure was about 450 miles. He stated that the materials being sold could have been used by his administration and warned that replacing them would be more expensive.

It remained unclear which materials were currently being auctioned.

Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick, a Trump supporter, initially expressed interest in buying the supplies, suggesting they could be given to the president-elect. However, he later clarified that the materials for sale were unusable and that Texas would not purchase them.

Texas, a state critical of the Biden administration's approach to immigration, has constructed portions of a border wall using federally supplied materials.

Last week, a report mentioned that Trump's proposal for mass deportation could severely harm the U.S. economy by reducing economic growth, shrinking the labor force, and increasing inflation.