Brian Kolfage, a triple amputee Air Force veteran who started a crowdsourcing campaign to raise money to pay for a border wall, told Breitbart News Saturday media reports the effort has failed are fake news.
The formation of a non-profit announced on Friday is the next step toward putting the more than $20 million Americans have donated to get the project done to use.
Following Kolfage’s announcement about the 501(c)3, We Build The Wall, Inc., the leftist media said all of the money donated to the GoFundMe campaign would be refunded.
In fact, the spokesperson for the fundraising website said that the donations would be automatically refunded if the campaign doesn’t reach its $1 billion goal, unless donors specifically direct their contribution to the new organization.
“The money is not being refunded,” Kolfage told Breitbart News Washington Editor Matt Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday. “I made a promise to everybody if we didn’t hit one billion we would refund the money.”
“I’m giving people the chance to opt out of this and get their money back if they don’t want to move forward in building the wall to protect the American people,” Kolfage said, adding that “100 percent” of the money collected on the GoFundMe site or through the non-profit would go for construction of the wall.
Kolfage said the “dream team” that’s been assembled is working with people on the border to achieve border security that the federal government has failed to put in place.
“We’re going to build the wall mile by mile on private property for half the cost of what the government is currently paying,” Kolfage said.
“We have farmers, ranchers, landowners who want the wall and they are lining up for us to build the wall on their property right now,” Kolfage said. “And that is what we’re doing.”
Kolfage also denied the media claim that his intention is furthering his own fortune.
“I am taking zero salary and zero compensation on this entire project,” Kolfage said.
The “dream team” includes experts on immigration and in other relevant fields.
“The new 501(c)4 called We Build the Wall, Inc., has formed a board of directors that Folgate will lead and a team of advisers ‘to provide critical guidance on the project’s legal, engineering, contracting, environmental, accounting, maintenance, and real estate issues and serve on the advisory board and or the construction, finance and or audit committees’,” a Business Wire press release said.
Kolfage also said that the GoFundMe campaign is also still collecting donations with some $200,000 raised since he announced the new strategy.
Kolfage told Breitbart News Saturday that although this mission is not like a military one, it is to serve the country and its citizens.
“I gave three limbs for this nation and I feel deeply invested,” Kolfage said. “I want to make sure that my children and my grandchildren have everything that I have today and I’m fighting for that.”
Those on board with Kolfage’s latest venture named in a Business Wire press release include:
Kris Kobach — Secretary Kobach served as the Secretary of State of the State of Kansas from 2011-2019. A leader in the national effort to stop voter fraud, he drafted and pushed for the Kansas Secure and Fair Elections (SAFE) Act of 2011, which made Kansas the first state in the Union to combine photo ID requirements at the polls, equivalent ID requirements for mail-in ballots, and proof of citizenship at the time of registration.
John Daniel Moran Jr. — Mr. Moran is an American businessman, entrepreneur, and industrialist best known for his role as President and CEO of Moran Industries, Inc., a warehousing, logistics, and transportation company based in Pennsylvania that was founded in 1975.
Erik Prince — Mr. Prince is an American businessman and Navy SEAL best known as the founder of the security firm Blackwater. He serves as Chairman of Frontier Resource Group, a private equity fund investing in natural resource opportunities in frontier markets.
Dr. Robert S. Spalding III, Brig Gen, USAF (Ret.) — General Spalding is an accomplished innovator in government and a national security policy strategist. He was the chief architect of the framework for national competition in the Trump Administration’s widely praised National Security Strategy (NSS), and the Senior Director for Strategy to the President.
“Angel Dad” Steve Ronnebeck — Mr. Ronnebeck lost his 21-year-old son Grant, who was brutally executed by a criminal illegal immigrant over for a pack of cigarettes while working at a convenience store in 2015. Steve has dedicated himself to protecting other families from suffering needless tragedies at the hands of people who have no business being here in the first place through his work with the Ronnebeck Foundation.
“Angel Mom” Mary Ann Mendoza — Ms. Mendoza lost her son Brandon in 2014 after his police car was hit by an intoxicated driver who was in the U.S. illegally. She is one of several parents who have been meeting with President Trump about how to tighten restrictions on immigrants in the country illegally.
Sara Carter — Ms. Carter is an award-winning journalist and Fox News commentator who specializes in reporting on the border and opioid crisis.
Sheriff David Clarke — Sheriff Clarke is an American former law enforcement official who served as Sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.
Congressman Tom Tancredo — Mr. Tancredo is a former United States Congressman who has been referred to as Congress’s most vociferous critic of current immigration policy. He served in the Reagan Administration and ran for President of the United States in the 2008 election.
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For more information, visit www.webuildthewall.us
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