Former White House chief of staff John Kelly is taking issue with the cost and efficiency of President Donald Trump's proposed border wall – and contradicts him outright on the level of threat illegal migrants pose.
During a during a 90-minute question-and-answer session at Duke University on Wednesday, the former Marine Corps general said there were specific areas where a border wall could be effective, The New York Times reported.
But building one "from sea to shining sea" was a "waste of money," he declared, the Times reported.
Kelly – whose public comments were his first since leaving the administration in January – also contradicted the president on the criminal threat illegal immigrants pose.
"They're overwhelmingly not criminals — they're people coming up here for economic" purposes, he said.
It is not the first time Kelly clashed with the president over his long-desired wall.
In December, Kelly said the wall was not actually a wall at all – a comment that sparked a defensive Trump response a "concrete Wall was NEVER ABANDONED."
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