Lindsey Graham claims Trump’s $5 billion ‘wall’ isn’t really a wall: It’s ‘a metaphor for border security’

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) spent Sunday at the White House trying to come up with an idea to fund President Donald Trump's border wall and give Democrats something they can sign off on. When Graham stepped outside to speak to the press about the progress, he had one strange comment: "The wall has become a metaphor for border security."

It's unclear whether the wall is a metaphor for the president or for the Republicans. Trump has maintained that the wall equaled border security, but it's possible the GOP see it another way. Graham could also be saying that an official doesn’t really want “border security” unless they also support a wall.

Regardless of the metaphor, polls show Americans know the difference. Indeed, some of Trump's own supporters know the difference between a wall and funding border security.

A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll showed 44 percent want a wall while 51 percent want border security. It's clear Americans see a difference.

Graham noted in the "Gang of 8" bill, there was ample funding for border security. Trump refused to sign that bipartisan bill that would have fixed many of the immigration challenges plaguing both sides for a decade.

In an interview with NPR in February, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) explained he'd been working on the legislation for years and it all came undone when Trump got involved.

"We learned something during the course of this, and it was unsettling," he said. "We learned what the president's real priorities were. The president said, well, let's help these young people. We need to do something to fix DACA. And yet, given that opportunity, he rejected it. It turned out that this debate was not about a wall. It was about a new immigration policy in America. It was about rejecting the notion that we are a nation of immigrants. Last week, one of our major federal agencies deleted that term, said we no longer want to have that as our mission statement, that America is a nation of immigrants. To deny our birthright as a nation is to really defy who we are, what we are and what we will be."

Trump was given money last year for border security and has only managed to spend 6 percent of it.

Watch Graham in the clip below: