Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s current home is getting an 8-foot-tall wall built around it and other security updates, leaving taxpayers with a $1.1 million bill.
The wall would help “ensure the safety, security, and protection of any sitting governor and the first family,” according to the governor’s office.
The government-owned home is receiving the increased security due to threats Whitmer has received in recent months.
Despite the new wall and electrified fence, the Democratic governor has a history of denouncing President Trump’s wall along the southern border, calling it “costly and ineffective” back in 2017.
“$40 BILLION for the wall,” Whitmer tweeted at the time. “Think how many kids that would educate, how many roads, bridges and pipes it would fix.”
Michigan became a hotbed of controversy because of Whitmer’s extended stay-at-home orders earlier this year. Protests to reopen formed in Lansing in the spring, including one protest in which people carrying rifles and other long guns gathered in the House chamber and shouted at legislators.
In April, thousands of protesters also flooded the state’s capital in their cars while flying “Trump 2020” and American flags to protest coronavirus-focused restrictions they said are excessive.
