According to one person involved in the matter, Kushner has “annoyed” officials due to his total lack of knowledge of the government’s procurement process for obtaining land and the “realities” of the project. “So he took a much more hands-on role in figuring out, mile by mile, how to get more wall up,” this person told the Post. “It didn’t help put wall up faster and cheaper. His interventions actually just created more inefficiency in the process.”

While Kushner insists that everything is on target to meet the goal of 450 miles by the end of next year—a pace that means accelerating construction at least fourfold—to date just 83 miles of new barrier have been completed, with nearly all of that classified by CBP as “replacement wall,” a characterization the president does not appreciate:

Though Kushner has blamed his predecessors for not moving quickly enough to obtain necessary land, a former Department of Homeland Security official told the Post the reason for that was this little thing called the law. “We weren’t taking people’s land willy-nilly,” said the official.

The White House declined to comment; Kushner’s allies in the administration say he is bringing private sector know-how to the project, which is a bit worrisome given his track record in the private sector.

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