Donald Trump is trying really hard to convince people that his border wall is both paid for, and under construction. Now, if you take any cursory look at the facts, than you’d know that it isn’t true. It’s not a difficult thing to disprove. And yet his base doesn’t seem to care. The Huffington Post recently did an article talking to Trump supporters about their belief in Trump’s lies over the border wall. Most of them either believed him regardless of the evidence, choosing rather to believe that Trump is more reliable than reality, or they just didn’t care. They didn’t care that he was lying about the border wall, because it’s the lie they want to hear, and the lie, I suppose, is better than nothing, I guess? I don’t know. Their responses were baffling. It goes to show that in Donald Trump’s war on Truth, he’s made more headway than we seem ready to admit. And when truth ceases to matter, than we are all in a lot of trouble.
I really love how Trump spent Monday desperately trying to be relevant. It’s like he saw John McCain passing away as some act that was showing him up, and he just couldn’t decide how to deal. First he basically ignored the whole thing, hoping McCain’s death would just stop being the subject of conversation. He tried to hasten that process by putting the flag up to full mast at the White House, only to get shamed into putting it back down to half mast. Trying to steer into that skid he finally said something nice about McCain, even though by this point it seemed half hearted and bored. Finally he decided to try and bring the news back to him by touting trade discussions between Trump and Mexican President Pena Nieto as some major victory in Trade Agreements. The hilarious part was that it almost seemed like Nieto didn’t know he was going to be on speaker phone, addressing the press. The whole slap dash press conference didn’t cement any new agreement, just that the US and Mexico might have come to some consensus. Weirdly, I feel like Trump would have had a better day if someone else offered to testify against him. At least then he could should wildly into Twitter about a witch hunt, instead of trying to pump everyone up over a non-existent Trade deal. Certainly Pena Nieto had better things to do on Monday.
The Border Wall might be concept I want to just go away the most. It’s an entirely pointless, useless construct that will do almost nothing to curb undocumented immigration, because as anyone with a cursory understanding of the subject will tell you, the VAST majority of people here illegally didn’t cross the border in the dead of night, they came over perfectly legally and didn’t leave when they were supposed to. If built, it’s a symbol of our dedication to Security Theater, or providing the visual appearance of impressive security, but lacking any real teeth to do the job. Of course the big selling point Trump originally had was that Mexico would in fact be paying for this massively expensive project. Mexico in laughed in Trump’s face, and now keeps trying to weasel the US and it’s citizens into paying for it. Now he wants the military to pay for it. Not only that, but he thinks having the Military build the damn thing falls well within the purview of national defense. I think any normal person would feel that nagging sensation of embarrassment and shame creeping over them. I have to give it to Trump that he seems unable to feel shame for anything.
So, Trump is trying to sell his hasty tariff proclamation by playing the victim card again. I forgot that great businessmen whine about how they’re being taken advantage of on trade deals. But he says he won’t get rid of these tariffs unless a new, fairer NAFTA deal is put together. I dunno. I can’t seem to figure out what his idea of fair is. But I’m willing to bet the builders and construction companies who rely on Canadian imports for materials don’t think things are terribly fair at this point. Did you know that 40% of frame building lumber for Texas comes from Canada? Eddie Martin from the Tilson Housing Corp. does.
Mind the Exit 