Yesterday, White House Chief of Staff and key Trump enabler John Kelly tried to downplay expectations that the president will not only fight immigration but succeed in building his preposterous wall. He said that Trump was originally uninformed about the reality of immigration reform, but that his mind has since been changed.
Anyone with even a cursory understanding of our egotistical president’s personality could have predicted that Kelly’s comments wouldn’t go unanswered, and today those predictions were proven correct. Trump, who seems pathologically incapable of ever admitting he was wrong or acknowledging defeat, took to Twitter to insist that the wall will indeed be built.
“The Wall is the Wall,” Trump began his tweet, with a tautology that he perhaps thought was poetic or lapidary, but really just came across as supremely silly. “All we have to fear is fear itself,” this tweet is not.
He then went on to claim that his plans for the wall have never changed from the first day he conceived them. The simpleminded idea that refusing to get more facts, details, or a greater understanding of the issue is a good thing is the quintessence of the Trumpian ethos.
Trump did hedge his bets somewhat, by stating that the wall doesn’t have to stretch the entire Mexican border since there are natural formations that will keep out immigrants just as well as his wall.
The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it. Parts will be, of necessity, see through and it was never intended to be built in areas where there is natural protection such as mountains, wastelands or tough rivers or water…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018
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The president then addressed his campaign claim that Mexico will pay for the wall. Mexico will, of course, not pay for the wall and they’ve said as much. Trump claimed that Mexico will reimburse the U.S. for his wall and that they owe it because of a trade surplus.
The sentiment makes no sense, and once again raises the specter of a trade war with our southern neighbor, which would be disastrous for all Americans and skyrocket the prices for most goods and services.
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….The Wall will be paid for, directly or indirectly, or through longer term reimbursement, by Mexico, which has a ridiculous $71 billion dollar trade surplus with the U.S. The $20 billion dollar Wall is “peanuts” compared to what Mexico makes from the U.S. NAFTA is a bad joke!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018
Almost two hours later, President Trump tweeted again about his idiotic wall, saying that it’s necessary for ensuring safety and security and that it will curb the flow of drugs into this country. It’s a completely disingenuous claim.
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If Trump really wanted to tackle the dangers posed by the cartels, he would end the Drug War and pursue a more levelheaded, results-focused campaign that would result in fewer Americans being imprisoned for petty drug crimes, and allow those suffering from addiction to pursue rehabilitation rather than receive punishment.
Legalizing marijuana federally would be a great start. It would take a hefty bite out of the cartels’ profits, and help decrease the United State’s astronomically high incarceration rates.
We need the Wall for the safety and security of our country. We need the Wall to help stop the massive inflow of drugs from Mexico, now rated the number one most dangerous country in the world. If there is no Wall, there is no Deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018
The wall is not going to happen. The structure was the cornerstone of Trump’s campaign and allowed him to whip up a xenophobic fervor in his supporters that ultimately propelled him into the White House. But now, given the reality of governance and the fact that most knowledgeable members of Congress realize what a colossal waste of tax dollars the wall would be, the project has stalled out.
In the end, Trump will probably slap some new fencing on the Mexican border and call it a day.
