Trump wants border wall to be see-through so drug-throwing traffickers don’t hit people on other side

US President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall is getting a lot shorter and at least partially see-through.

Trump offered new details of the wall he wants to build on the Mexican border to reporters travelling with him to Paris during an off-record conversation on Air Force One, portions of which were later released for publication Thursday by the White House.

His colourful explanation of his thinking included planning for the possibility drug dealers would haphazardly toss heavy bags of illegal narcotics over the barrier, posing a danger to innocent passers-by unless they could see them coming.

“It could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what’s on the other side of the wall,” Trump said. “As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don’t see them – they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It’s over.”

Trump also told reporters there is “a very good chance” that solar panels can be added to the wall to offset costs. He also said he sees an opportunity to cut the length of the wall to as little as 1,100km rather than the entire length of the border, which runs about 3,200km.

“You don’t need 2,000 miles of wall because you have a lot of natural barriers. You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious. You have some areas that are so far away that you don’t really have people crossing. So you don’t need that. But you’ll need anywhere from 700 to 900 miles,” he said.