Trump held a press conference in the White House Rose Garden today, once again giving the world a good, hard look at what an American president losing his mental faculties in real time looks like. Not surprisingly, he spent much of his time rambling about the idiotic border wall he is determined to build along the Mexican border.
Unfortunately for Trump, Democrats now control the House of Representatives, which means any funding for the wall would require Democratic support that it does not and will not have. Newly ascended Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has already made it abundantly clear that she will not be giving the president wall money.
Stuck at such an embarrassing impasse, Trump is already laying the groundwork to paint his looming funding defeat as a victory to his supporters. He has started floating the possibility that the “wall” might actually be a “fence.”
Strangely, much of his rhetoric today was centered around what kind of material the imaginary border wall will be constructed out of. He claimed it might be a “steel wall” rather than a concrete wall, which is really just him preparing his base for an eventuality in which he throws up some steel sheets and calls it a day.
Trump is out here talking about "drug-finding equipment." #wut pic.twitter.com/BxtwbzIfhM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 4, 2019
Trump has deluded himself into believing that Democrats give a damn whether he builds his fake wall with steel or concrete.
He then claims that "some" of the previous presidents have told him that they should've built walls. pic.twitter.com/TRmFclYTeL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 4, 2019
At one point in the conference, Trump said that it’s possible that the government shutdown he’s currently responsible for could last years. Meanwhile, federal employees are going without pay because the president refuses to pass a budget without wall money. The longer this shutdown runs, the more incompetent he ends up looking.
Trump confirms that he told Pelosi and Schumer that the government shutdown could go on for years. He can't cite a single shred of progress that was made during their meeting. pic.twitter.com/J4rQGNg27d
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 4, 2019
REPORTER: Why not reopen the government and negotiate afterward?
TRUMP: "We have terrorists coming through the southern border… They drive right through and make a left. Not gonna happen, not gonna happen." pic.twitter.com/Ujc82enZoG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 4, 2019
Asked about prospect of his own impeachment, Trump says, "You can't impeach somebody that's doing a great job, that's the way I view it. I've probably done more in the first two years than any president, any administration in the history of our country… there was no collusion." pic.twitter.com/BUlx3kbLCs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 4, 2019
Trump also put forward the terrifying idea of invoking emergency powers to grant himself the authority to build the wall. While it seems unlikely that he’d follow through on the unconstitutional, authoritarian threat, the mere fact that he would publicly entertain the idea shows that he has no respect for our democracy or its checks and balances.
He also discussed the idea of using eminent domain to take land from people and use it to build the wall, a gross abuse of power that would end up kicking innocent Americans off their own properties. One can only imagine how the GOP would react if a Democrat suggested seizing private property for a pet project.
Trump says he "may" grant himself emergency powers to build the wall.
"It's called a national emergency," he says. pic.twitter.com/0aWF4iDtTY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 4, 2019
Realistically, this game of chicken ends with Trump settling for some minor fencing around the border, which he can then lie about and pretend he got the wall he’s been promising all along. Democrats have him on the ropes, it’s just a matter of time until he caves.