Miami (AFP) - So far, US President Donald Trump can't get the US Congress -- or Mexico -- to pay for the "beautiful" wall he has long promised to build on the southern border.
Enter: crowdfunding.
Triple-amputee Iraq War veteran Brian Kolfage has launched a GoFundMe account called "We The People Will Fund The Wall."
As of Friday, Kolfage had raised more than $12 million in five days, with the goal of reaching $1 billion.
"If the 63 million people who voted for Trump each pledge $80, we can build the wall. That equates to roughly 5 Billion Dollars," the Florida-based Kolfage wrote.
"Even if we get half, that's half the wall. We can do this."
Quickly, a rival GoFundMe page went up to raise money for "Ladders to Get Over Trump's Wall."
"We saw some folks are raising money for a border wall to keep out our migrant siblings and fellow human beings, who are fleeing violence and persecution," reads the page, set up by transgender army veteran Charlotte Clymer.
If money is ever raised to build the Trump wall, "we wanna make sure ladders are ready to send over to our undocumented friends and help them."
"If this seems ludicrous, we welcome you to the coalition of reasonable adults," Clymer wrote.
"Should we not reach our goal--or should they (ahem) not reach theirs," she said, the funds will be handed to the nonprofit group RAICES that helps immigrants.
The site has raised more than $82,000 in one day, with the goal of raising $100 million.
Trump has fought for a wall on the US-Mexico border since he began campaigning for president in 2015.
It will take $70 billion to wall off the 1,933-mile (3,110-kilometer) border with Mexico, according to an April 2017 US Senate report based on Homeland Security data.
