Children were encouraged to create a “Build the Wall” mural at a White House Halloween party for executive branch staff and their families.
Some attendees said they were “horrified” by the design that was plastered on a wall of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building just across from the west wing, which houses the vice president’s ceremonial office and a majority of the White House staff.
Large black letters reading “Build the Wall” can be seen in pictures of the mural.
Each “brick” in the wall is a piece of red paper with the names of children who were invited to the party on 25 October.
Other images shared online showed Vice President Mike Pence in attendance.
An attendee who requested anonymity told Yahoo News which originally reported the story: “We were horrified.”
A spokesperson for the vice president later denied he was ever in the room featuring the wall.
They said Mr Pence “came to our ceremonial office” and nothing else.
“Our ceremonial office had a plane display,” the spokesperson told Yahoo News. “We had kids build their own paper airplanes and fly them. That’s what the VP came to.”
The spokesperson said they “have no idea” about the “Build the Wall” display, adding: “I’m not aware of it.”
Donald Trump promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” across the US-Mexico border during his 2016 presidential campaign and work began on some segments of it last year.
However, officials recently revealed that Mexican smuggling gangs have repeatedly sawed through sections of it in recent months by using commercially available power tools, opening gaps large enough for people and drug loads to pass through.
Ben Rohrbaugh, a former White House official who worked on border security under the previous administration, told Yahoo News the “wall is just a xenophobic symbol” and the mural was “obviously a gross thing to have children do”.
He said: “To the extent it’s a representation of an actual wall on the southwest border, the kids have made nearly as much progress as the president has since 2017."
