Trump's Border Wall Thirst Continues to Be His Undoing
President Trump’s primary campaign promise was to build a “big, beautiful” wall along America’s southern border. Construction has yet to begin nearly two years into his presidency, and with Democrats set to take control of the House of Representatives next month, it doesn’t look like Congress is going to OK the massive project anytime soon.
The GOP still holds the keys to the government for a few more weeks, though, and Trump is doing all he can to convince lawmakers to set aside $5 billion so that more than just concertina wire can be thrown up to shield the United States from the “people who have lots of problems,” which is how Trump described immigrants during a meeting on Tuesday with presumptive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). That Oval Office summit concluded with the president announcing that he was prepared to shutdown the government if Congress doesn’t approve funding for the border wall, and if he isn’t able to order the military to go ahead and build it, which he threatened to do hours earlier on Twitter. On Wednesday morning, Trump returned to social media to loft a few more Hail Marys.
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
Neither tweet makes much sense. On Tuesday, a gunman opened fire near a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, killing at least two people. The gunman, who is still at large, shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar” during the attack, which seems to be the detail Trump is keying on as he attempts to use the attack to drum up fear of immigrants crossing America’s southern border. Working against Trump’s argument is that the gunman was born in France.
Invoking Iran 15 minutes later wasn’t much more effective. The United States government spends billions of dollars on items of questionable necessity, but it did not pay Iran $150 billion as part of the 2015 agreement that resulted in the nation discontinuing its nuclear program. President Obama instead offered Iran sanctions relief, effectively unfreezing their own money. No taxpayer money was spent on the deal. This wouldn’t be the case for Trump’s border wall, which would ultimately cost far more than $5 billion. The wall is projected to cost $25 billion, but some have contended that it could set taxpayers back as much as $70 billion, not to mention the $150 million per year that could be required for maintenance. Trump still maintains that Mexico will pay for the wall.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-border-wall-768042/
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