Thread by @jaketapper

There's a real divide among government officials about whether the border fence the president is visiting today is what it says on the plaque bolted to it: the "first section of President Trump's border wall."

Here's what I've learned. 1/

2/ Yes, this replacement fence was planned by the US gov dating back to 2009. All of these barriers have been planned in some way. shape or form for at least a decade. But Trump is the one who pushed for funding and made it a priority, thus the funding was allocated in 2017...

3/ ...and with the design that the President approved. CBP officials give Trump credit for making the funding a priority to the degree previous presidents did not.

That said, it's not being paid for by Mexico,..

4/ ...and a running joke among border agents, a source tells me, is that the plaque will serve as a decent foothold for migrants looking to hop the fence.

Then there's this: the fencing is not an immense concrete wall as once promised....

5/ The president was convinced by experts in his administration that bollard fencing was much smarter than a concrete wall. So he went with that.

But that's why we have a fence with a plaque on it calling the fence a "wall." Which is on its face kind of strange.