So, we are going to build Trump’s wall. The White House has pressured the U.S. military to divert $3.6 billion away from more than 100 national security projects to start building the fence.
You will not be surprised to learn that Mexico won’t pay for this; U.S. taxpayers will. We can’t afford toothbrushes or flu shots for immigrant children seeking asylum, but we can, apparently, afford to build a $60 billion wall over mountains and through deserts.
By the end of 2020, just after the election, Trump says there will be 500 miles of completed wall. Thus, he will be able to reassure his supporters (four out of every 10 voters) that he is keeping his promise to wall off the southern border. All the experts — all — agree the wall will be difficult to build, will not end illegal immigration, will cost far more than any current estimates, will mean landowners will have their property seized, and in time will become a despised white elephant.
But Trump’s wall is something he can be photographed with and which will, of course, be named after him. Trump’s supporters don’t seem to care that he is not keeping his other promises — to restore U.S. manufacturing, bring back the coal industry, stop Russia from interfering in our elections, fix health care, rebuild America’s infrastructure, stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, drain the swamp.
Historians will look at the Trump era as a waste of time and resources, a time of hate. They will be appalled at the resurgence of racism, white supremacy, dismissal of women’s rights, the end of America’s self-appointed role of spearheading human rights.
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