President Donald Trump’s often-touted “border wall” has recently been referred to as “beautiful steel slats” by the president, a “beaded curtain” by California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, “semantics” by White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, and “not a wall” by outgoing White House chief of staff John Kelly. Finally, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that the wall was nothing more than a “metaphor” for border security.

Sen. Lindsey Graham: "The wall has become a metaphor for border security" pic.twitter.com/vXrmJpUV52 — CBS News (@CBSNews) December 30, 2018

“The wall has become a metaphor for border security,” Graham spelled out in remarks at the White House. “What we’re talking about is a physical barrier where it makes sense. There’s nothing wrong with a physical barrier along the border where it makes sense.”

“I’m not spending $30 billion on a metaphor,” one Twitter critic responded.

That's cool. I'm not spending $30 billion on a metaphor. — this is what oligarchy looks like (@CariniGambarini) December 30, 2018

Cool, here’s zero dollars. It’s a metaphor for five billion. — Guy Endore-Kaiser (@GuyEndoreKaiser) December 30, 2018

Would Mexico pay for a metaphor? — Pete Giorgianni (@pete_giorgianni) December 30, 2018

Kelly conceded the point to the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Sunday: “To be honest, it’s not a wall.” The White House abandoned the concept of a “solid concrete wall early on in the administration,” he said.

After Trump began pushing his “artistically designed” steel slat fence this month, incoming House majority leader Pelosi quipped that the “wall” had become a “beaded curtain.”

A design of our Steel Slat Barrier which is totally effective while at the same time beautiful! pic.twitter.com/sGltXh0cu9 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018

Graham’s use of the term “metaphor” might be a strategy to give the president a way out of his ultimatum to Congress, which was to give him billions of dollars for his wall or he won’t sign a spending bill to reopen the government. A metaphor could be an easier target for a compromise.

But someone should tell Trump a “wall” no longer appears to be in the plans. He just tweeted Sunday that a “ten-foot wall” around Barack and Michelle’s Obama’s home is what he has in mind for the entire southern border.

President and Mrs. Obama built/has a ten foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound. I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The U.S. needs the same thing, slightly larger version! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2018

As of early last year, fencing and other barriers lined nearly 700 miles of the 2,000-mile southern border, which Graham pointed out has already cost billions of dollars.

Trump earlier this month declared in a tweet that “our southern border is now secure” — without a wall — “and will remain that way.”