In light of President Trump’s continued calls for a border wall, his outgoing chief of staff, John Kelly, made a notable remark in a recent interview.

“To be honest, it’s not a wall,” John Kelly said in his interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“The president still talks about ‘wall’ — frankly, he often says ‘barrier’ or ‘fence’, now he’s leaning more toward steel slats,” Kelly added. “But we left a solid concrete wall early in the administration when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.”

Responding to Kelly’s comment, Maggie Haberman of the New York Times said: tweeted: “Kelly says the concept of a ‘wall’ was abandoned early in the administration. Trump has continued to say ‘wall’ for the past two years.”

RELATED TOPIC: President Trump visits border wall prototypes

Kelly’s remarks come against the backdrop of a partial government shutdown that came into effect after lawmakers failed to agree on a budget because the president had requested $5 billion to fund the border wall.

In one of his many tweets since the shutdown began, Trump wrote: wrote: “We will be forced to close the southern border completely if the obstructive Democrats do not give us the money to finish the wall and also change the ridiculous immigration laws that burden our country. It is hard to believe that there is a Congress and a President that would agree to this!”