7-year-old Texan Raises Thousands for Border Wall by Selling Hot Chocolate — and Revels in Ridicule

A 7-year-old Austin boy who has raised nearly $20,000 to help pay for President Donald Trump's proposed wall along the southern border with Mexico has faced backlash and name-calling for his efforts, but he says he appreciates his critics."I actually like that people are being so negative because they're the reason I'm getting so much money for the wall," Benton Stevens says.His parents say he begged them to help him set up a hot chocolate stand outside a shopping center in Steiner Ranch after he watched President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Feb. 5. "We thought he would go set up and within 30 minutes to an hour get bored and be done," Jennifer Stevens said. "But the negative comments he got seemed to fuel him up, and I saw a side of his personality that I didn't even know existed."Benton, who also has been collecting donations through the Venmo app, has been called “Little Hitler” for his enthusiasm for the proposed wall, according to his parents.His parents say the ridicule has affected their son, who used to wear a “Make America Great Again” hat but stopped after three women made fun of him during the president’s 2016 inauguration."It seems like what people are judging Benton and us for is our certain values and certain beliefs and thinking that we hate people because of it, and that's frankly not true," Shane Stevens said.Shane Stevens, who is chief executive of AnyPlace MD, a mobile health management company, said the opinions people have of his family are far from the truth."We give asylum seekers from Syria free dental work, and we do a lot of fundraisers for wounded Hispanic veterans and even open our home to them," he said. "People just judge us without knowing what our family's even about."Benton's parents label themselves conservatives, but Jennifer Stevens said she has never encouraged her son to be political."I hear, 'He's a kid, why don't you let him be a kid?' Well, he is a kid," she said. "He plays soccer, he does basketball, he loves to fish. ... He does plenty of kid things, but he happens to also be passionate about Trump, the politics and the wall."The Stevenses said their son simply wants everyone to be safe and protected and doesn’t view a border wall as a form of segregation.He plans to give the money to the federal government to help build the wall, but laws governing donations to the United States could make it difficult to guarantee the money is used directly for that purpose.  Continue reading...