President Donald Trump is highly interested in the design and appearance of the border wall and would prefer if the slats are painted "flat black," making the metal too hot for climbers to scale, The Washington Post reports.
Additionally, the president wants the slats to be pointed, or spiky, and described to White House aides "in graphic terms the potential injuries that border crossers might receive," per the Post.
Trump in December tweeted a rendering of the wall with the spikes, describing it as "beautiful" and "totally effective."
He described it not as a wall but rather a "Steel Slat Barrier," and has told aides he does not care if the barrier is a fence and not a concrete wall like he has promised.
"One way or the other we're going to get a wall, we're going to get a barrier, we're going to get anything you want to name it. You can name it anything you want," he said during a bill signing in December.
The Post says Trump wants the openings in the wall to be smaller, and that the current blueprint includes too many gates.
He also "thinks it's ugly," said one administration official who spoke with Trump, and wants it to be aesthetically pleasing.
"He thinks not only can the wall be effective, it doesn't have to be an eyesore," added a DHS official said. "He wants one standard uniform height. That's what he's going for, and we have to match that with operational reality."
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