Boys play around, climbing the border division between Mexico and the U.S. in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on Jan. 26, 2017. President Donald Trump on Thursday told Mexico’s president to cancel an upcoming visit to Washington if he is unwilling to foot the bill for a border wall. Escalating a cross border war of words, Trump took to Twitter to publicly upbraid Enrique Pena Nieto. “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.” Image: AFP/Herika Martinez
A 7-year-old boy took the brunt of social media ire after he set up a hot chocolate stand to raise money for United States President Donald Trump’s border wall.
The boy, named Benton Stevens, apparently begged his mom Jennifer to set up the stand. According to Jennifer, it started when Benton watched Trump’s State of the Union Address last Feb. 5. As per KXAN on Feb. 18, Jennifer explained to her son what the wall was about, which made him want to contribute money to the wall.
Jennifer and her husband Shane are active members of the Republican National Committee (RNC), as per the report.
“People think he’s brainwashed,” Jennifer was quoted as saying. “Well, of course, he supports Trump because we do, and he hears how we talk and this and that. Call that brainwashing, but I call it parenting, because we instill our values in him.”
Benton’s hot chocolate stand was set up at a Steiner Ranch strip mall in Austin, Texas last Feb. 16. It had to be closed down on the same day despite earning $231, however, after somebody took a photo of Benton’s stand and posted it on social media where it drew polarized reactions.
Jennifer and her husband were also slammed online for using their son to push their own agenda.
“He was called a little Hitler yesterday,” Jennifer said in the report. “A guy pointed at him in his car and then he said that we didn’t like brown people. I don’t understand that at all.”
Meanwhile, others were supportive of Benton and donated money to his cause. Jennifer said her son was able to raise about $1,400 — and they are determined it goes nowhere but to Trump’s border wall.
“We’re going to get it into the wall,” she said. “There’s a GoFundMe page and we’re also part of the RNC and we’re pretty connected there so we will 100 percent make sure it goes towards the wall.”
Trump recently declared a national emergency to obtain funding for his $5.7 billion border wall. This comes after the government shutdown which resulted to 800,000 unpaid federal workers. As per reports, Congress only approved of $1.4 billion for border security. Cody Cepeda/JB
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