President Trump wants lawmakers to sign off on something his own Department of Homeland Security can’t yet provide. As Axios’s Jonathan Swan reported last week, “sources close to Trump say he’s dead serious about building an impressive wall and will go crazy when he realizes Congress has no plans to pay for it.” But as of now, there’s no “it.” DHS doesn’t even have plans for what such a wall would resemble, just weeks from a budget deadline and possible government shutdown in which border funding is a decisive issue. Notwithstanding the lack of appetite among Hill Republicans for lining the U.S.-Mexico border with concrete, it appears the president is putting the big and beautiful before the blueprints.

These matters of expectations and timing already frustrated the White House on health reform. They also apply here. In March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued two solicitations for wall prototypes: one made of concrete, one potentially made of alternate materials with a see-through component, both in the ballpark of 30-feet high, and both “aesthetically pleasing” on the American side. In May, the agency began inviting selected contractors to submit designs and cost estimates. The time budgeted for them to pitch their proposals and have the work reviewed by CBP was five weeks. An agency spokesman provided an update to THE WEEKLY STANDARD on Thursday: “The prototype design process is still underway where contractors will develop and build their own designs. We expect to select between four and eight for that effort.” It was immediately unclear how close CBP was to choosing. Those who are picked have 30 days to complete construction of 30-foot examples of their designs, as well as 10-by-10-foot segments used by the government for testing.