We don’t know if you’ve heard, but Trump has a distaste for clean energy roughly on the same scale that he is obsessed with his border wall.

That’s why it’s a little odd that he is considering lining the US-Mexico edifice with solar panels. He made the remarks during a closed-door session with Republican legislative leaders yesterday, but it was suggested that the President wanted the solar panels to fund the wall.

There is quite a lot to unpack here. Firstly, Trump just pulled out of the Paris agreement, which in effect was a huge middle finger to the renewable energy sector – as well as international diplomacy and cooperation, of course.

Rather bizarrely, this is also the first time the President has expressed any interest in solar power.

Are the solar panels designed to be a response to the global reaction to the Paris withdrawal decision? Is it an attempt to win over environmentalists? Considering that those that align with these causes tend to oppose Trump and his wall, it’s not likely.

He has also repeatedly claimed that Mexico will pay for the wall, immortalized in a series of unbearably nationalistic chants at his campaign rallies. Is solar power the new Mexico?

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House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was part of the meeting, told reporters that “the president is committed to building the wall and securing our border and I commend him for it.” He then added that the wall “would actually function as a solar panel to ultimately pay for itself.”

Don’t get us wrong: clean energy is great. It’s cheap, effective and has an extremely low carbon footprint. Solar panels on the wall could make sure the watchtowers could be powered – although without a proper battery storage system, nighttime electricity might get a little tricky.

The rest of the wall probably doesn’t need solar power, to be honest. We’re not sure if you’ve noticed, but walls don’t tend to need powering much.