Trump is not going to get a wall. He can't get the 10 Dem votes he needs, and if he grabs executive fiat, he will be tied up in court for years. Even acquiring the land will take more money and time than anyone has got. This wall is a fever dream from absurd provocateurs Ann Coulter and Roger Stone. We have all been taken hostage by a very stupid man.
225
The logic of replacing a solid concrete wall with so called steel slats, so boarder patrol officers can see into Mexico, also allows illegal immigrants and drug smugglers see into the United Stars and where the boarder officers are. This just shows hoe stupid this “ barrier “, solid or see-through, is.
15
In a few years there will be money appropriated to tear down the wall.
18
There is a word for forced unpaid labor: slavery. It's supposedly illegal in the USA.
26
It is difficult to believe that our government is shut down because a president who appears to have serous ties to Russia and is responsible for the separation of children who were then placed in cages from their parents. A man who lies about everything insults the parents of the two children who passed away because of this administrations intentional full incompetence.
Hires people who look good on TV not because they are talented in their role. Good example is the Homeland Security person who is clueless in her position. The American people and democracy are being held hostage by this type of political corruption.
All of these GOP politicians should be looking over their shoulders because the democrats have arrived. The American people are awoke and we will be running for their seats when they come for reelection. People do not forget how this administration has treated them and for all the fancy GOP talk, children have passed away and their is no justification under the sun for what has happened, life is not a movie.
26
Trump demanded airtime to rehash the same paranoid misinformation he has always uses to sell his wall. Most people expected him to offer nothing new and he didn’t disappoint. The networks chose to gave him the opportunity to hog the spotlight he so desperately needs anyway. The spotlight was probably the real reason for the speech – as well as for the wall in the first place. The next day we are yet again caught up in analysis of the speech (such as it was) and of him and feeling played yet again.
It’s well known that narcissistic neediness is what drives Trump’s many rallies by feeding his beast. Narcissistic neediness was surely the motivation for Trump to run for president in the first place. Campaigning is a fix for him. Governing, not so much because it involves ideas, creativity, thought, analysis and work and since none of this is done in public, it does nothing for Trump.
It’s shocking to think that someday this man will have his own presidential library.
18
can the networks now charge him for airing a campaign commercial since he used it to solicited contributions?
21
Some thoughts on immigration: From an historical, native Indian perspective the European immigration beginning with the colonists and continuing thru a lot of the 20th century was a disaster. In any case what had been a large and fertile country rich in resources is now getting to be over populated at some 330 million people. The broad concern now is th at the white descendants of those European immigrants see their political and cultural hegemony being threatened by immigrants from south America and other non European, even non Christian sources. Both Democrats and Republicans have problems dealing with this issue. Democrats seem to just try to handle it more rationally and humanely. The situation is ripe for fear and exploitation. Hence we hahve Trump.
9
A wall around the Big Pharma companies manufacturing and "pushing" opiods would be a lot cheaper and probably save many more lives.
25
'it’s not really a wall that Trump is after, if indeed it ever was. It’s a victory for victory’s sake. It’s a show of his might.'
Nobody has ever said 'no' to Donald Trump before. The very idea is anathema, and enrages him. This is not just a show of his might, it's a trial of strength. With the Senate majority sidelined and passive, the President has picked the ground on which he now wants to fight the incoming House majority.
This is not about the wall. It's not even about his empty promises to the base. It's about the supremacy of Donald J. Trump, the man to whom none dare say 'no'. He cares only for power, control, adulation, gold and gratification; and nothing - certainly not the suffering of those whose livelihood is being destroyed - will be permitted to gainsay him.
He did say one searingly true thing last night, however: he declared this a “crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul”. And he is right: except that the heart and soul is that of America itself. If Congress capitulates to Trump over this manufactured crisis, then it can expect more of the same, and all the time. But they can be in no doubt that their defeat will have far-reaching consequences.
17
If the wall was intended to be 'proof of his potency,' it is turning out to be proof of his impotence.
19
Trump had two years of Republican control of both houses of Congress and he didn't get his wall.
Trump had agreed to a bargain hammered out at the end of the congress the Republicans controlled, that didn't give him his wall.
Then a handful of right-wing commentators threatened him and he reneged on that deal.
Calling this an "emergency" is grotesque and pathetic. We need to be done with this buffoon.
30
Such wonderful writing about a horrible subject.
13
I bigly want us to be rid of this clown, and McConnell before they destroy our Republic.
As a former long-time Republican, I had hope that the R's in congress would finally decide to stand up to Trump when Maddis finally decided he had had enough of this Neanderthal whiner in chief.
13
It continues to be obvious that Trump is a man deeply insecure about his masculinity. Nothing else adequately explains his conduct. Had such a man not inherited an established family company and $400 million of his father's money, he'd have just been another unremarkable, cowardly wife beater.
21
The truth is that Trump has won on Border Wall. Every politician needs a simmering issue to broaden his/her base. Once done, Trump want have an issue to talk about everyday just like DACA for Democrats, that they left hanging so there is something to talk about. The Wall will build a base for Trump and chip away at the Democrat lead in areas along the border and where illegals go for work. Here is how.
Trump promised a Wall. He shows that he is doing a lot to deliver. The Democrats are resisting even though the same guys have spoken for it in the past. Trump is already highlighting that.
Trump said Mexico will pay for it. Trump is starting to say that Mexico is paying for it with the new trade deal that is now better for the USA. And once it becomes law and effective, will have much to show. Democrats better get going on that and pass it and not waste time looking at Trump taxes because it will show that his income is not as big (Rich people's money is hidden behind Corporations).
And Trump has already won on Taxes, Jobs and Russian Collusion and Impeachment. Democrats electing a 29 year old bartender talking socialism and 70% tax; a hijab wearing women versus a progressive Muslim; kids that are not well behaved on display (even Hillary acknowledged the wonderful job Trump did with his kids: The apple does not fall far from the tree will never be quoted by Democrats.
Liberals, Democrats and media really need to look at this Wall and Bridge slogan.
1
The Wall is a power play for Mitch McConnell and Trump's main tactic to divert attention away from RussiaGate. Mueller is closing in. Read recent disclosures about Manafort 's collaboration with Putin while running Trump's campaign.
14
There's no logic to this at all. How will a $100 billion 30 foot wall that will take 20 years to build solve this supposed big problem?
13
Timeshare Sales Survival 101:
Trump's Wall and all of his morphing claims (1000 miles, 35- to 40-ft tall, concrete, $8B, metal slats, back to concrete, back to steel, $5B, $5.6B, $5.7B, border security) IS BUNK.
Aptly put, Mr Bruni, "why (Trump) and his allies have to lard the pitch with lies."
The scope has been lies. The cost has been lies. When the Democrats were 2 weeks from leading the House, a December crisis was manufactured for the consumption of life-long Republicans.
This hostage-taking TO WIN a physical incarnation of $5.7B will only solve the crisis placed in their heads.
VP Pence futilely shovels The Trump Tower of Lies.
"There's a Grand Canyon-sized gulf between a past president telling Trump directly that the wall is something that should have been done in the past and the vice president noting that he has seen ex-presidents on TV saying that border security is important. Pence knows this."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics/donald-trump-mike-pence-border-wall/index.html
Trump Whisperer slipped-up, telling THEIR truth:
"If we undercut the president, that’s the end of his presidency and the end of our party," Mr. Graham said.
"Make Party Great Again" - that's behind all of this.
Get a grip, Lindsey. Open the government and don't base survival on Trump. That's his plan for McConnell's blind and frozen and that's the destruction.
4
Attributing his lies to a psychological need ignores his con man motivations in keeping a scam going with his deluded cult followers. A twisted mind for sure, but the twisted mind of a shark.
4
Don't see a way to respond to your newsletter, so I'm doing it here.
You comment that Trump demands the respect accorded to previous Presidents. I propose we do exactly that: I give him exactly as much respect as he gave to his predecessor, Barack Obama, namely none. (He actually went into negative numbers on that, and so shall I.)
No birth certificate needed!
6
Absolutely right Frank. He is president of the United States, and all he can think to do is squander that amazing opportunity on repeating the same thing he has always done: use other people's money to have other people build things, so he can look up and see his name on it...
5
Donald trump had his chance to get his wall when the Republicans controlled both houses for 2 years. This is a bad joke.
181
Bottom line, it is an ego thing. He wants a wall so he can grace it with a big gold (has to be GOLD) plaque stating "Built by Donald J. tRUMP 2019 for the American people". He probably will order at least a half dozen so he can place them at intervals along his precious wall!
4
Trump had also made it clear in a luncheon yesterday w/ leading network anchors that he didn't think either the speech last night nor the site visit tomorrow at the border will help at all; his aides made him do it! So, like a small child, he cannot drum up enthusiasm for something he doesn't want to do and he's already placed the blame for his flat-footedness where he thinks it should be (anywhere but on him).
He is a disgrace to his office. And to us all.
192
The crisis has always been and still is that Trump does not have a heart or soul. A man who exists only to praise himself.
7
Last night the Networks wasted prime time on presidential,“no news” lies collection. Instead, They should have displayed in the lower corner of the screen a real time count of his lies which when reaching a certain predetermined and pre-announced count limit, would terminate the real time broadcast of his “no news” lies collection.
2
Walls! We saw what happened with the Berlin Wall. Everyone predicted gloom and doom. None of that happened. It's all been good. Tearing down walls is good for everyone -- learning to accept and get along -- not to mention trade and exchange. And tourism! Back and forth. We know what's wrong with Trump, but how do you explain his speechwriter Stephen Miller? A nice, handsome young man with such hatred in his heart -- or at least the outward expression of his heart. Maybe he just needs a lot of hugs -- which is obviously what Trump is short on -- all his life. Of course, I'm forgetting who is to blame for all this -- and it will take a lot of study to figure out what is wrong with Putin.
3
I think it is time to realize there is a pivot going on in our perception of the President. (Was I the only one who heard him sniffle, like he did during the debates) When the public hears something over and over, they begin to believe it. There is a continuous statement that Trump's base will never leave him. Commentators need to say that the American people are smart and love their country and will make good decisions about how our country should be administered. This needs to be said over and over.
2
The entire right wing is mired in fantasy about the border/immigration. I remember a poll several years ago that asked, "should we close our borders?" as if they were doors we could slam to shut the world out. Can't recall which blog it was but I posted that (1) the border did not have a door we could just close, (2) how do we "close" all our coastlines and (3) how do we close the border with Canada much of which is forest. I also asked how much money people were willing to spend on the Border Patrol.
A bunch of right-wingers flamed me, but no one answered the practical questions.
2
@Annie There is nothing impractical about using extensive data bases like DMV logs, local arrest records and DACA applications to identify and hold accountable undocumented aliens living and working illegally in our country. And yet many progressives shriek in outrage at the idea that we use all available data-driven resources to identify these unauthorized foreign nationals. Why?
1
Legal or illegal, we should welcome immigrants. We need them to rake our national forest floor so as to prevent fires.
7
And the millions and millions of indigent foreign nationals who have already infiltrated our nation or wish to AREN'T needy? It is their rapacious, unending neediness that has so many Americans concerned. When is enough enough?
1
Here’s an idea. A bullet train from California to Texas along the Mexican border could also serve as a wall. This would make both Republicans and Democrats happy. Problem solved.
1
How about Democrats trade the Wall for impeachment? Win-win?
7
@Godfrey No, not impeachment, RESIGNATION!
9
Just a wonderful column, full of salient observations regarding the pathetic, ignorant fool we have as president. Trump is as needy and weak as anyone I've ever met or read about. Sad. And dangerous.
5
DJT is a master at fear-mongering. That what he does. He primes the pump by first instilling doubt, also known as fudging facts or straight out lying, then goes on from there.
It's a sorry spectacle, but that is all he truly knows anything about-spectacle. He's an empty shell of a man and much like the men he reveres: Putin, Duterte, Erdogan, Kim Jong Un, Modi, Bolsonaro, etc, ad nauseam. They are all empty shells of what a human being can be.
There is nothing to the wall except ego and spectacle as there is nothing to DJT except ego and spectacle.
1
Let's establish one thing. Trump doesn't care about undocumented immigrants flooding the border. If he was serious about it, he would crack down on the businesses that hire them - which is what Obama did - starting with his own. He has illegals working on his golf courses and attending to his own personal quarters! Of course many people, including Republicans in red states like Arizona and Texas hire undocumented immigrants
The wall is pure optics. It certainly won't keep out "bad hombres" looking to get into the US, much less the drugs or, international terrorists.
I suspect Trump just wants to keep illegals susceptible to exploitation.
4
A secure man or woman does not require constant displays to prove it, or anyone's approval. Last night we saw the real Trump: alone, friendless, pitiful, vain, insecure, unmanly, cowardly, and completely self-possessed. For Donald, the die was cast early. A non-military family does not send their child to military school because the child is so disciplined, self-assured, and confident that he requires more training in what such schools offer: discipline, self-assurance and confidence. He was born a failure, came of age as a failure and is a failure as President, a job he rose to by appealing fraudulently to a gullible electorate thirsty for a different way forward. Last night was the night the nation, told to expect the "great and powerful Trump" instead peeked at the sad little man behind the curtain. We will find out in November 2020 how many actually had their eyes open.
3
A man stands up and does the right thing for the good of all. That is not our current president.
4
Let Trump fixate on the ridiculous wall as a measure of his value as a human being. In the meantime, the Dems will bring forward legislation that the American people want - gun safety, healthcare, worker protection and wage improvement, clean air, clean water, rooting out corruption and protecting the Mueller investigation.
Let Trump grandstand while Congress gets to work.
2
My enduring and ongoing question: How is it that this person is still the President of this great nation?
We can’t seem to remove him. The system failed.
4
If only you could join me in my dystopian fantasy world, you'd see the need for wall. If not for the Republican Congress, which we had for two years while I president, we might have had wall, but we didn't, so I blame Democrats for what I do.
Give me wall!
1
Give him half of the five billion like Pence suggested but insist the other half is used to pay off and pay forward needy kids lunches so they get at least one hot meal a day.
That's the REAL humanitarian crisis happening everyday in this country.
3
While on this morning's commuter train, I overheard two people argue about last night's show. One person seemed to believe everything Trump said. The other patiently attempted to explain the inaccuracies. The Trump believer was having none of that. I suspect their "discussion" indicates that there always be a certain number, one hopes a small minority of voters, who continue to believe anything Trump and Fox News say, no matter what. So, let's stop wasting time responding to the willfully ignorant, and devote our energies to whom we hope make up the vast majority still capable of reasonable discussion. It is time for those in and out of government to marginalize the Trumpists, to "build walls" around them, to limit their ability to continue to mess up government. Maybe a new form of civil disobedience is called for.
Another reader says The Wall is trump's monument. Yes, probably. Can't imagine anyone naming elementary schools, post offices, research facilities for him ... and can there possibly be a presidential library? Someone will, somewhere in his base-land, affix his name to a project. Maybe a landfill.
1
"And all presidents want to rack up triumphs that make them look and feel large. But none in my lifetime has spun so many falsehoods in the service of that."
Richard Nixon. George W. Bush.
China is in South America and Africa investing in infrastructure programs; building highways and water/sewer systems, and lots of good will.
t rump and his party want US to hunker down inside of walls, quaking in fear at the caravans of moms and babies and people looking for work and a better life.
Who is going to win the next century?
2
"And all presidents want to rack up triumphs that make them look and feel large. But none in my lifetime has spun so many falsehoods in the service of that. None has been so naked in his hunger for that heft. "
And none have been so utterly devoid of concern for the national interest.
How about just standing Trump on the border? He would be a bigger deterrent than any wall!
1
Every year hundreds more people are killed by gun violence (guns most often held by American citizens) than by illegal immigrants. That seems like a national emergency to me.
3
I'm starting to worry that Canada's gonna put up a wall.... if things get any crazier down here.
That's a wall that can be logically justified.
3
Frank, I think your diagnosis is entirely correct. I sometimes have a brief sense of pity for Trump, diminished as he is by his personality disorder. Then I remember his hatefulness and dishonesty, greed, and lack of empathy for other living creatures, human or animal. He has so over-estimated his abilities that he took a job that he is unable to do, yet it comes with the most intense spotlight on every facet of his life. He did this to himself. I am very tired of being hostage to his delusions and neuroses.
2
Rural white voters hear Spanish in the supermarket and all of the sudden we need to spend $25 billion on a wall.
The wall is not a monument to Trump’s neediness. Rather it is a monument to the racism and xenophobia of the Republican Party.
5
All of this hubris must be viewed through the profound narcissism of the president. Everything must be big, no lie is too big to apologize for, no rule or law needs to be kept. Trump knows it all and will tell you loud and clear how smart he is. He knows more than the generals and doesn't need a security briefing every day. He knows what Putin is going to do.
Bruni. you have the ego thing correct. But few in Congress know how to deal with this kind of disorder or personality. They are still afraid of his Tweets and insults. They give him more power than he deserves. This is why his behavior is such a problem. He is more dangerous than ever, the more the pressure builds.
1
The trumpster is for illiterates not for most people who read the NYTimes or have pursued a higher education beyond elementary and high school or been cultured dysfunctional. Propaganda, hate and fear are easily fostered in these people because they have never learned to think for themselves. Unfortunately America has millions of these people. They are people succinctly portrayed in Spike Lee's new movie. Good luck America in separating the wheat from the chafe.
1
"It’s a victory for victory’s sake. It’s a show of his might. It’s proof of his potency."
Trump's Vanity Wall.
So Trump claims the current 700 miles of wall/barriers has not curtailed illegal immigrants.
Why, in God's name, then does he demand MORE WALL?
2
During this Trump manufactured fiasco, who is going to stand up for federal workers? Why isn't Nancy Pelosi sponsoring a bill to loan federal workers 80% of their typical pay? Why should they be hungry, cold, stuck without gas, at risk for losing cars, apartments, cell phones, houses? Someone needs to stand up for our civil servants!
2
trump thinks demanding a wall makes him seem tough. He thinks that shutting down parts of the government to get a wall makes him seem tough. He thinks talking tough on tv makes him seem tough. He is a weakling who made a farce of real border issues and it's going to erode whatever power he had.
1
“As predicted, the president’s address tonight was nothing more than the fear-mongering and lies we have come to expect from him ... ” (Rep. Thompson, D-Miss.) Exactly correct. Just like Mr. Trump's lie about previous Presidents wanting a wall. Just like Ms. Sander's lie about thousands of terrorists coming across the border (which even Ms. Conway has admitted was a lie). And on and on. No credibility, no shame, no character. Just lies and chutzpah.
You are assuming that Trump is actually concerned with border security and the protection of American citizens. Trump has no such concerns or sensibilities. The “wall” is a prop, a device to enable him to retain power and get re-elected. Nothing more. Nothing less. If this were an immediate threat then why are so many Federal agencies understaffed? Why isn’t the military assigned to patrol less fortified areas? Where are the video clips of terrorists invading? The fact is Trump is an incompetent liar! He cannot handle any real crises and can only conjure up fabricated ones. Trump is actually not functioning as a government official. Like Reagan, Trump is “acting the part” of President. Trump is cognitively unable to focus, concentrate, analyze, and follow through on anything. His prime attributes are: defensiveness, recrimination, bating, shaming, and lying. What other executive functions has he shown competence? Every person (outside of rank sycophants) has departed his administration with a degraded opinion of his intelligence and integrity. Trump is incapable of working effectively with others and, inevitably, neither party is benefited. Trump is a supposed billionaire who only recognizes the concerns of other billionaires. He did not earn his money and has no appreciation of that process. Expecting him to have the vision or sensitivity to care for his constituents is frankly, ridiculous. So please stop saying what he could have said. He’s a one trick pony. One term too?
1
If Trump is the great negotiator and fearless fixer of all things that strike fear into the central pulmonary systems of white Americans and Christian fundamentalists, then why is he acting like a snake-oil salesman at a Klondike county fair?
.
What are you talking about?
Of course, Trump lies.
And oft times they are unnecessary lies.
His home, his wealth, his grades, his 'intelligence'.
I think of him as that person always trying to sell something.
A term Judge Judy calls puffing.
Trump started his very campaign with a lie about the previous president (sitting president at the time), by questioning his birth status as a person and US citizen.
Many papers gave him lip service.
That same president is still a bone of contention with Trump, with Trump constantly trying to 'trump' him.
He's in constant competition with the previous president,
it seems he rightly feels inferior to him.
So he lies, embellishes like the dickens.
But here's the deal.
Trump might have money, has tall buildings that have his name embronzed on them and the name recognition that comes with the 'status' of having money, but he doesn't have the smarts, nor intelligence and the one biggie, CLASS.
Even 'W' and Clinton had certain degrees of CLASS.
Trump has none of it.
For a man who seemingly has everything, he is one very insecure puppy.
2
T was reading a prepared text with no feeling or emotion. Robotic like the person.
2
The Statue of Liberty should be reworded,"do not give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. If you do, we will arrest them and separate them from their children"
1
Federal agencies whose job it is to secure the southern border want a wall which they insist will help them do their job. The relatively small cost of such a wall compared to the national budget is reason itself to build it. Schumer, Pelosi, Obama, and Hillary Clinton have all supported a border barrier in the past and conservative radio plays their comments constantly They are simple hypocrites whose only real purpose is to oppose Trump . The most ridiculous part of this article is the superfluous mention that Trump did not win the popular vote. Who cares and why do liberals constantly bring it up. Presidents are not elected by popular vote according to the constitution as we all well know. If people want New York and California to decide who becomes president change the constitution. Otherwise please shut up you embarass yourselves every time you mention it
1
The Shutdown, a direct consequence of Trump's ego for not [yet?] getting his "wall," hurts hard working, U.S. citizens, who are government employees.
Trump mentioned yesterday, when asked about government employees, "Oh, they'll adjust..."
Whose feeding him that bolox laden idea? Trump, it seems, is treating federal employees effected by the Shutdown, much the same way he treated, and treats, his own private sector employees and contractors.
Why doesn't Congress write legislation that takes federal employees out of the onslought of collateral damage created by these politically inspired showdowns? It seems the least Congress could do for federal employees who are silenced by the Hatch Act.
Now, that's another example of disenfranchisement!
2
The great walls of history have consistently proven to be monuments to political and/or personal vanity. Not one of them has ever deterred a desperately determined human being. If the stakes are dire enough (protecting one's family from violence, for example), we humans find ways through, over, or under them--or we die trying. Surely, in all the annals of history, that lesson ought to have been learned?
5
@Jackson "Not one of them has ever deterred a desperately determined human being."
So NO undocumented immigrants have perished in the deserts of Arizona or New Mexico as a result of our border fortifications?
1
There is a significant need for walls for Mr. Trump. The need is internal. There is a need for walls in his mind to separate fact from fantasy, from what should be prioritized over matters which are less important, from the difference between 1955 and 2019, from persons and countries who are true allies and those who are nefarious. It is a crisis for him as his inability to think coherently and logically is influenced by his lack of inner boundaries and inhibitors. As his mental condition declines further, one will see that his desperation for walls will escalate.
6
Never has Trump's racial bias and bigotry been more on display than on Tuesday night. His whole campaign in 2016 was racially designed by his overwhelming emphasis on immigration. Now that his control is teetering he is trying desperately to hold the support of the racial bias of his "base." What he has never grasped is that his "base" is not enough to re-elect him. He has lost those who were fooled by his TV personality and his over blown reputation. His days are numbered.
5
Donald j Trump is unfit to be POTUS, morally, mentally. He is a chronic-liar! And a world class narcissist, who needs attention constantly, loathes when the attention is not given. Notice that he has ousted everyone from his Caninet that may have invoked the 25th Amendment!
Republicans, must join with Democrats to open OUR government! If not then Federal Workers MUST strike! That will bring Donald to his knees!
Mitch McConnell OPEN OUR GOVERNMENT!!!!
7
Pathetic desperate human being, unfortunately cruel as well. He never mentioned the 800,000 workers furloughed or working without pay. Good call, Frank.
11
$5.7 billion is nothing. What does having the wall really hurt? It's not a financial burden and could actually help secure the border in a far more efficient way. Many countries have walled/fences borders ... I don't see what the big deal is other than people dislike Trump and will do anything to see he doesn't get anything. I think people need to be more logical about these things - be honest, if your favored party suggested it would you still be against it? Why?
3
But this is not a fight based on logic or truth. It is an argument based on lies in support of a powerful symbol. First, recall Trump would not take $25 billion last year— that’s because protection for immigrants was included in the package. Even now, he will not take $1.3 or his 5 plus billion if protection for immigrants is included. It is, in fact, in his interest to keep the fight going: his base stays with him if he is pugnacious and combative. But even if he were to accept the money with immigrant protection included, his symbolic win (perhaps) would greatly empower him to pursue his agenda—tying Senate Republicans even more tightly to him. And the Democrats have an obligation to protect their power and constituents. The actual money is not what this fight is all about. It is symbolic power of enormous consequence that is being fought over.
10
@kz I am almost sympathetic, but when I read what actual border security people argue (google it) I can't help but say, "Why waste that money when it is needed elsewhere?"
3
If we agree to a build a wall, the next thing the GOP will ask for is a return to “Whites Only” bathrooms and water fountains.
11
Trump's ego is involved in getting the money, not the wall...notice when he does not like people from Central America coming here he says cut off their funding, as he tweeted this morning about funding for forest fires to FEMA this morning...shut down the money. It is the fact we won't give him the blank check for the Wall that grinds his mind and no doubt his belly...a man who no doubt had to grovel to his father to give him the money is still demanding and denying money for others he does not like. Denying him the money for the wall is an ego bashing affront. Let's keep it up please!
7
I'm willing to be convinced we need a wall (or some barriers), but throughout these months I have only been convinced that the requested money would be poorly spent. It also seems obvious that Trump is playing politics rather than caring for the American people. How sad for us all!
4
Trump's entire life has been spent in building--through fraud, corruption, nonpayment of debts and employees--structures with his name on them. The wall is his ultimate structure that he wants to use others' money to pay for, and when it's completed, he will want to put his name on it: The Trump Wall. The great wall of Trump, visible from outer space, so everyone can marvel at it. Ozymandias the great. Trump the great. He wants to be the greatest hustler the world has ever seen. The art of the steal.
8
"It's like a manhood thing with him." Of course it is. Trump cannot function on an adult mature level. There is no THERE, there in his pitiful ego. The film-flam is to cover for that basic problem.
The blundering folly will go on, to the peril of the country and the world, until he is removed from the office he is morally and mentally unqualified to hold.
As a rich playboy, he was a nuisance. As President, he is a continuous danger to the people he should be leading, and to the rest of the free world. The people happy about his presidency are the sworn enemies of the United States -- Putin, Kim, Xi, the ayatollahs and the fanatic imams -- and his enablers.
it is difficult to see what evangelicals find praiseworthy in him -- perhaps as a precursor to the Apocalypse. Even the banksters and the kleptocrats should be getting nervous. He's not THAT good for the market.
10
To assuage the President’s ego, I think Congress should propose a bill that the American people would be happy to drop say .... Ah.... let’s see...
50 million bucks on a statue of Trump that’s one foot taller than Lady Liberty, placed in NYC harbor, in exchange for him forgetting about the wall.
How’s THAT for the art of the deal?
3
@Mark Eisenman
We would NOT!!! And especially as a New Yorker- just the thought makes me sick to my stomach. I cannot abide the man? and neither can the majority of my fellow citizens-
And this too shall pass!
2
Walls don't work. Its just that simple. If they did, the Berlin wall would still be standing and the Great Wall of China would be something more than a tourist attraction. Walls don't work. And it is a natural human reaction to try and scale one, or dig under one, or find imaginative ways to propel one's self actoss them. All walls are like an affront to the human drive to be free to move about. Build a wall and I guarantee you that people desirous of freedom or a better life will find a away over, around, through or under it. The wall will go down as Trump's folly. Walls don't work.
6
Intriguing. Gross but intriguing.
These article are interesting to read and to see how the Times' brilliant columnists find new ways to describe the sad state of our president's mind and his leadership. However, writing about our president is below them and, honestly, he's not worthy of dusting their keyboards. That said, I feel strongly that the Times should use this talent by resisting "Trump's terrible" columns and sending their columnists across the country to talk to people and hear their stories, write about the real reasons they may support Trump, which may be because no one is listening to them.
2
The man just wants another physical structure to bear his name TRUMP -- gold plated, of course. Lindsay Graham, McConnell, and the Freedom Caucus members have sold their conscience to tolerate this child/president in order to get their agenda accomplished, no matter what the cost is to the country.
3
If DJT's wall was so critically important that it had to be implemented even before the masterful negotiator easily convinced Mexico to pay for it, why did he and the Republicans in control of both houses in Congress not reduce the trillions in the 2017 tax cut by a negligible rounding error @$5B to fund it?
5
@Michael Miller
Good question.
I'd much rather see Trumpism diminish traditional Repub establishment water carriers (like the Bushes and the Romneys) for the pro-cheap-labor business crowd than vice versa.
So, anyone who thought that the dozes of mental health professionals who stepped forward to assert that Donald J. Trump has serious mental health issues and is a danger to the country were ‘out to get him’ need to seriously reconsider the professional opinion that was offered. As noted in this op-ed, Trump is extremely needy and, since he is not actually a 2 year old, psychologically unbalanced. Trump shut down the government when conservative pundits criticized him; he reversed himself, refused to sign a compromise bill and created this crisis. Which he does, repeatedly, so that he can then claim to fix it. The criticism Trump faced from Coulter and others came on the heels of the midterms, where he and his party were trounced. And the end of the midterm campaigns meant that Trump no longer has the adulation he craves and requires t maintain his self-image and psychological balance. No rallies, no screaming base to feed his ego. He faces 17 investigations, and is repeatedly learning he does not control everything, and not everyone thinks he is amazing. Trump cannot psychologically tolerate that reality; he cannot tolerate any reality that does not glorify him (popular vote count, crowd size.) Trump is literally delusional: he maintains fixed false beliefs (on immigration, in this case) that persist in the absence of evidence and/or in the presence of contradictory evidence. The mental health professionals were right. Trump is dangerous and should be removed.
4
An relative easy solution to the fact checking problem in real time with trump would be to do the opposite, only report on he truth of any of his statements. The fact checkers could take a nap.
1
Last nights speech was like Trump Steaks, Trump Wine or Trump University, I.e. Just another Trump con job.
However, we do have a national emergency. His name is Donald J. Trump.
6
What is described in this Opinion, in very fine detail, is a president who is marked by an incurable mental condition...a "personality disorder" that is not amenable to psychiatric treatment, not curable by any means our medical experts now have, entrenched and in Donald Trump's case florid. Donald Trump suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder...and in his case, it's now just a fluke of temperment. It's what I would say is "Malignant". Donald Trump sees the world through the rose-coloured glasses of a personality disorder that makes his "reality" either fabulous for him or dismal and dreadful (mostly for the rest of us). Narcissists sometimes become dangerous to society, or even the world. He can't be reasoned with, or even persuaded. He will do whatever he likes to serve his monstrous ego, and he will destroy whoever, or whatever gets in his way. The only reasonable solution to the dilemma of Donald J. Trump the Narcissist is to remove him from office, and soon!
Trump has never actually put on a uniform and defended the border. He has no first-hand experience of what it’s like.
Just ignore him.
Instead, listen to the people who actually do the hard, daily, sometimes dangerous job day in and day out.
The National Council of Border Patrol Agents has endorsed a wall as necessary and effective. Let’s listen to them, and build the wall.
https://bpunion.org/featured/op-ed-by-nbpc-president-brandon-judd-trumps-wall-is-the-best-way-to-end-the-humanitarian-crisis-on-our-southern-border/
1
Multiple allusions to sexual prowess aside by Bruni, the chaos caused by the porous southern border must stop. We are a nation of laws. Mexico is not. A viable demarcation of the two is necessary, both symbolic and physical it will send a message that endemic Mexican corruption is not welcome here.
This is in the best interest of Mexico also to motivate them to clean up their mess and get on with providing citizens prosperity and a better life there.. which cannot happen with their current endemic corruption.
Snarky allusions don't cut it.
1
Trump lacks problem solving skills.
Trump lacks consultation skills with experts.
Trump suffers from impaired cognitive awareness.
I read the report in Wikipedia when articles mentioned this effect.
I found that Trump's behavior fits the description perfectly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Right on target, Frank. You could go further, for it's not just the wall but this is his behavior on every issue. He has to overcompensate for his ignorance and incompetence with ego saturated bluster. Been doing it for decades as a real estate "mogul" in NYC who spent more time seeking headlines in the tabloids than actually doing anything.
1
When Trump spoke of "heart" and "soul" in reference to his self-fabricated immigration and border crisis. we knew he didn't write those words. Fake empathy !
What does a thrice-married man with multiple self-described gropings (Hollywood Access tape) and extra marital affairs know or care anything about anyone's heart or soul? He conspicuously sat mute and passive in the National Cathedral during the funeral service for former President Bush. He ordered and is complicit in the forced separation of young children from their parents, and blaming them for being tear gassed.
Where are his heart and soul feelings for Dreamers, for government employees locked out of their jobs, for victims of violence in Central America now seeking refuge in the U.S. and suffering for their patience?
1
Time to remember that President (Lyndon) Johnson's then much invoked "credibility gap" was a lot narrower than Trump's but got him into a lot more trouble. The Good Old Days, that was, when the cancerous growth of the presidency still seemed not to be mortal.
This is a republic, not a monarchy. We do not delegate law-making powers to any one person. We need the Senate, the senior house, to lead again and to join the project to legislate Trump's presidency back into the constitutional bounds set forth in Article 2, not to make laws but "to see that the [existing] laws are faithfully executed." Either that, or to legislate this kind of presidency out of existence entirely.
1
If his lips are moving he is not to be believed on any subject unless of course cognitive dissonance overtakes rational thinking.
Good write. Thank you.
It’s ironic that 45 is in the position he is in partly because of all the media attention given to him in his previous life. Putting him on the covers of magazines, constant TV exposure and all the rest. Even though their were plenty of signs he was a fraud, full of hot air and more than ethically challenged. And here we are, with a significant portion of the electorate absolutely loving him for having the guts to “tell it like it is”.
3
Trump’s position on immigration is nothing new. Every recent President or candidate for that office, as well as many leading Senators and Representatives, have espoused something similar, including a need for a physical barrier. That’s a fact. The problem is that Democrats/liberals have a visceral hatred for him that transcends anything he says or does. Even people who think he’s doing a decent job don’t really like him. That’s also a fact. It’s not a popularity contest, even if many people approach it like it is.
1
we went from concrete wall to steel slats ...so call it an electronis/technological wall and get on with it...
The Times "fact checker" was dead wrong on five of seven Trump statements. And right on the one Chuck and Nancy comment - "It needs context."
Example: Claimed Trump was misleading when he stated there were thousands of illegals at Border every day. Said those turned away were not same as illegal. Well 1,700 a day IS THOUSANDS!
She then indicates 300 more would make it accurate. Come on, you have to be kidding?
Said Schumer did not support barrier fencing. WRONG. In 2006 he did - 700 miles!
Etc. etc.
Beautifully said, Frank!
The wall or fence is not intended to keep people out but rather to have them cross only in designated crossings. The barriers work for this limited purpose and save a great deal on the manpower needed to police open borders where drugs are smuggled.
Trump's spin, ego, reelection hopes, style, and misstatements are irrelevant.
1
Of course some physical barriers are necessary at the southern border. The question is whether Trump's "big beautiful wall," whose height, length, material, and costs keep changing, is needed in addition to what we already have.
I think we should remember how often Trump's outlandish claims/demands stem from establishment Republican (and Democratic) thinking. Remember McCain's commercials in 2008? ("Build the dang fence!") And when undocumented workers in the Trump (and Obama) years flee the US out of a fear of capture, that looks a lot like what Romney called for: "self-deportation."
We sometimes say that Trump's policies satisfy the Republican establishment but the rhetoric and tactics make them cringe. I think that often his rhetoric and tactics derive from establishment impulses; he just dials them up to 11. The Wall and the horrendous treatment of asylum seekers seem to me good examples. Most Republicans tolerate the noise because they like the tune.
2
If he feels so endangered by Mexicans in D.C. then let him import old Berlin Wall and set up around the White House.
3
A little less op, a little more ed, This is lazy reporting. Our war machine s huge, currently bmbng 9 countries, and beefed up our home land insecurity.
WALL WALL WALL WALL WALL
How many died immigration stall
But that wall on the Rio Grande
Is not where we should take a stand
The WALL we should be talking about
Killed thousands who had no clout
It is called WALL STREET
Where the grotesque meet
They bankrupted the middle class
Betting on windfall profits their task
Lost your job and then your house and family
Dying on the hanging tree
Suicide, heart attack, stress and misery
Build a Wall to blind to see
3
We are all being held hostage by a fearful, delusional, stunted, brat.
4
Network executives had little choice but to grant him access to the airwaves. He had never made such a request before, so it’s not like this particular grandstanding is habitual. F. Bruni
Disagree that they had "little" choice. They had a choice and they chose the path most traveled. Put him on the airwaves. It's all part of the big show.
Sickening.
3
You know what is so crazy about all of this? It is a response to Anne Coulter. All of it. And this is the second time! I'm telling you there is something psychological about her strange hold over Trump.
4
My suggestion is to have someone in Mexico start a GoFundMe for the Wall. Use whatever amount they raise to build Trumps majestic Wall. A monument to last for generations extolling this great leaders virtue.
Trump if you are reading this, I am talking about you man.
Richard Nixon would have been 106 today.
Were he alive today he would rightly be able to shake his head and say: "I never did anything this crazy. Never lied to this extent. Never said anything this absurd."
4
The only emergency here is the deteriorating mental health of a narcissistic dotard whose every utterance and action screams his unfitness to occupy the Oval Office. When will Republican senators acknowledge that he is a threat to our economy, our environment, our foreign policy, our national security and our very existence? He should have been impeached, indicted or locked up in a mental institution long ago. Why American voters chose this buffoon to be the leader of the free world both mystifies and amuses friend and foe alike. Unfortunately, our foes will sooner or later try to take advantage of the chaos he has created by fomenting a real crisis.
4
Narcisism at work. By the time he goes the country will be able to write a manuel on narcissism and all will see it for what it is. Crippling.
3
In checking daily police reports, along with news, sports, obituaries and comics, in my daily newspaper over the last 15-20 years, I have found that the most-serious crimes committed are by people with “American” names. The crimes include robbery, theft of property and identity, physical and sexual assaults, drug production, selling and possession, and murder.
The crimes I see in police reports with Spanish names are almost always “driving a moped under the influence.” And in terms of the number of offenses, I’d say one of the latter for every 300 of the former. Some terrorist crime wave, eh?
I realize this is one city and county, and it’s not very scientific, but it’s more accurate than our lying president’s “facts.”
Oh, and those Mexicans stealing our jobs, all you Red-blooded Americans itching to throw them off the farms and roofing jobs for their lucrative $8 an hour salaries, c’mon down.
9
This completely summed putin's puppet.
1
The liar in chief can now point to his having commandeered the networks to spew more lies. Will this charade never end? Will the liar's henchmen (McConnel and gang) ever manage to work up nerve enough to wipe the simpering grins from their faces and do what must be done: removing this so-called man from office? No, no they won't, and we will spend two more years listening to lies coming from this so-called man. Sad, bigly sad.
2
A Nancy Pelosi victory would be tearing down the existing walls.
How many?
How many people should the USA absorb every year?
Come on now, you pro-open-borders types:
Cough up a number --
a hard number;
How many people every year?
Total, overall -- all categories combined.
You can't manage to cough up a hard number?
And then actually take whatever measures are needed
to seriously enforce that number?
That makes you de facto pro-open-borders,
whatever your pious disingenuous protestations to the contrary.
My proposed number:
one million per year --
total, combined, overall.
Already, every year, we are granting
one million "green" cards,
the right to legal permanent residence,
already more generous than any other country grants.
Problem is, that's not good enough
for millions of illegal aliens -- and their "advocates":
At least 10 milliion people (the low estimate)
or maybe 20 million (the high estimate)
are now already here illegally,
and the pro-open-borders crowd
want to legalize their "status",
which, of course, will encourage even more to come illegally.
Well over 7 billion people in the world,
rapidly closing in on 8 billion.
The USA has 330 million people.
That's plenty.
How many more do you want?
You want us to be as grotesquely over crowded as India?
Bangladesh? Indonesia? Nigeria?
No?
Then let's have a total overall combined limit on immigration,
and enforce it -- seriously.
Divide it up however you want --
"merit", "work","family", "asylum" --
whatever --
just so long as it all fits into the overall combined limit.
2
And so it begins as the greedy gray white males who preached conservatism- killing unions, decimating progressive tax rates, lauding capital over workers, gutting job training, slashing funding for education, stacking the courts, massively feeding the MIC, freeing Big Pharma from any competitive bidding and letting them decimate American lives with their addictive products, denying climate change, etc., etc. - slink away from the "responsibility" they crow about unrelentingly, as their ideology crumbles and rots from the Conservatives' greed agenda's massive success. Conservative white males wrought Trump and they own all of his demented debacles, just like they still own Bush II's endless wars and destruction of the housing market and banking industry. Never allow GOP to raise its ruthless treasonous head again.......wipe them out in 2020 like we used to eradicate diseases.
3
"Hast seen the White Wall? Hast seen the White Wall?"
So cried AHam, once more hailing the ship of state that sought to pass him by. Trumpet to mouth, the old man was standing in his hoisted quarter-deck, his ivory heel plainly revealed to the public below.
2
Trump was all set to do a deal, and then Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh called him a wuss.
Then he had to go ahead and prove them right.
6
Doesn’t a “crisis of the heart” need a marriage counselor not a wall?
2
Tell me again who his supporters are and where they skulk. That anyone could have taken Trump, the candidate, seriously enough to vote for him is wacky enough, but that they aren't massing at the gates of the White House with pitch forks and torches only proves what ignorant, gullible fools they are. Trump & Co. including his Supreme Court appointees need to go – NOW!
4
I disagree. This wasn't about Trump's ego. It was a desperate effort to maintain the support of his core. I am sure that his approach was dictated by polling results leading him to stand fast but not appear to be a maniac by declaring a national emergency (shades of Hitler and the Reichstag). Trump does not care about his legacy. He is unconcerned with public opinion, or even his own self-evaluation (which I don't think he can do or ever does). He is concerned only with winning. He and his advisors are convinced that continuing to pursue the wall is the only way he can ever win in 2020. He has lost all middle ground support. If he loses his core he is doomed.
1
Why is no one in the Republican party calling for a Big Beautiful Wall along our northern border. Don't bother answering, we already know why.
1
When you go on national t.v.and give a speech from the oval office, and you start off sounding like "Reverend Ike" pitching a prayer cloth for $19.95, you are in deep trouble.
We all know his worn out schtick, - and are tired of it.
1
Bill from Michigan says: "But he is trying to get things he promised done, things that voters want. "
Yet he lost the popular vote by over 3 million and current polls state that voters don't want this.
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/11/675334306/poll-americans-want-trump-to-compromise-on-border-wall-amid-possible-shutdown
2
Trump and his ilk are clearly suffering from gigantomania, a specific expression form of the many Grand Delusions that a whopper of a superiority complex afflicts the poor fellas with that got infested off guard and unwittingly with this mysterious epidemic infectious disease, trying frenetically to hide a horrible pain they can't cope with, the pain of feeling and experiencing oneself as inferior.
It's easier to contain ebola than to contain gigantomania.
Look at his giant towers with his name on it in giant gilded consonants and vowels transporting less elevating meaning than emptying bowels.
Hear his grandstanding: "And if you're a star (or better yet a Czar), they let you do it."
"I know more and better than anyone, more about Isis than than the generals, more about the nooclear, more about anything you name it."
"Only I.."
"It's yuge."
"I could stand on the middle of 5th Avenue" (and spontaneously ascend to NRA Heaven?)
There's a wiki page on the crave, craze and rage, but to my taste it's somehow, for inexplicable reasons, falling short to depict the length and the outer-normal-space extent that the madmen that go full gigantomania dabble and rebel and rattle and erect and racket and rocket and rumble into.
The G on every single MAGA hat in use stand for Gigantomania.
What a tiny, tiny, tiny heart connects and true performance effects they all got to cope with compared to their inflated egos.
One day we'll find and concede all our religions were gigantomania.
1
Trump is a modern incarnation of the mythological King Erysichthon, who had an insatiable hunger, who sold his daughter for food, who eventually ate himself.
Trump's hunger, of course, is not his stomach but his ego.
2
The truth is that no one, outside of his sycophantic supporters, cares what he has to say anymore...if they ever did. It's long past time for the United States to have a serious government. Now that we have a Democratic controlled House the Republican controlled Senate needs to find a backbone and join with rational people to actually do something it hasn't done for years...govern responsibly...in the name of the people instead of special interests. Enough about this stupid "wall" and Trump's neediness.
2
What crisis at the border? If it were truly a crisis, all Trump had to do was accept a 10- to 14-year path to citizenship for 1.8 million children of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States at a young age. In return, he would have gotten 25 billion for his wall.
But that would have meant 1.8 million potential Democratic voters, and after congressional Republicans had explained that to the Master Dealer, he reneged on the agreement.
If Trump had truly believed it was a real crisis at the border, wouldn't you think he would have taken the deal? But, of course, there was no crisis!
Trump supporters must be either very gullible or have serious issues in applying logic. Or, they may not be that stupid after all; they just want to keep America White again.
2
"[...] but “we” as usual meant “I.”
The so-called pluralis majestatis. It is supposed to be the prerogative of royalty. And that he is not.
1
Frank. You. Don't. Get. It
It’s not about a wall, it’s about we don’t want more illegal Guatemalans Nicaraguans Mexicans in our country.
We have enough gardeners.
Stop this over population by the third world in America.
It is about nationalism and fixing our problems first.
Charity begins at home.
Nationalism is on fire around the world.
It is not about a wall it is about controlling our nation.
I guess Trump couldn't find any Americans to perform the labor on his building projects and to clean the toilets at Mar-a-Lago, since he has always employed undocumented workers...and ripped them off to boot.
3
So here we are, hundreds opining on Trump’s stupid border wall and his inappropriate political use of the prime time airwaves, while consequential news stories are breaking that officials in the Trump campaign actually WERE colluding with Russians to undermine the presidential election to get this sad excuse for a human being elected to the highest office in the land.
Unless North Korea starts bombing California, or Tariff Man throws the country into another Depression, the television networks should refuse him any more prime time “emergency” airtime so he can puff up his chest to his sycophantic followers and use it to raise money for his re-election, which he did last night.
This man is a crook, a racist, an incompetent, and - as the evidence mounts - a traitor to this nation. Truth and goodness can be found in the opposite of everything he says and does. Anyone who holds 800,000 federal workers hostage so he can maintain his fragile ego is worthy of everyone’s unbridled disgust.
1
More than ego the wall is a fetish. Just as are his other monuments to biggest, longest, tallest, and so on.
As has been known time immemorial men will pay any price for their fetishes.
1
The crisis of heart and soul is on the boarder in the White House.
Donald Trump's puppeteers don't actually want a wall, they want an issue that will live on forever. They traffic in issues designed to make "both sides" hate the U.S. government no matter what full, partial, or non-measure is taken.
Prideful Donald Trump is just the useful idiot they can wind up and set braying and tottering and glowering and slurring about, setting off the loyalty receptors in what passes for conservative brains.
Trump doesn't just lie because he's "Trump being Trump," devoid of virtue and knowing no truth worth saying. He lies because he's a dyspeptic infant regurgitating the steady diet of propaganda (foreign and domestic) he's being spoon-fed because even he can't stomach them all.
Conversely, Nancy Pelosi doesn't continually speak of facts to humiliate the president for sport. She's Speaker of the House of Representatives. She has to count votes in the hundreds to pass complex legislation in the face of unprecedented smear campaigns. Facts are her business.
Stephen Colbert famously opined, "reality has a well-known liberal bias." That Republicans nominated a pathological liar whose only superlatives are thinnest skin and biggest ego just gives the left the added benefit of having every truth uttered be a contradiction of him and all he stands for.
But humiliation? Can anyone who still calls themselves Republican in the age of Trump be self-aware enough to be capable of shame?
2
Correction on submitted comment: "secular stagnation" not "stagflation."
Sure, build the wall! Build it 30 feet high and 30 feet wide, 2000 miles long! Because people can do a thing called digging, best make it sure it extends 30 feet under the surface while you're at it. The possibilities are endless - with those kind of dimensions, we could make a gulag, I mean detention center, of it as well. All the landowners and tribal members that object to having their property seized could be detained inside of it, as well as anyone who dares approach it. We could finally solve our Gitmo problem, just put them in the wall! Hillary could be sent to the wall! Nancy and Alexandria too! (And really all troublesome, uppity women) We could disappear anyone we wanted to! Ex-wives with NDA agreements! Unlovely and embarrassing daughters! Lawyers turned snitches!
We could even reserve a cell for treasonous, unhinged presidents.
1
Our Spoiled Brat in Chief is a technicolor example of why children shouldn't receive participation medals.
No one told little Donnie "No." No one taught him right vs. wrong. No one explained consequences. No one told little Donnie when he was wrong. Fred Trump and his wife didn't take the time to properly raise that mess of a man.
He is the most needy and deranged President in our nation's history. This is an undisputed fact.
The question now is, How the heck to we get him out?
2
I saw Trump hater Frank Bruni on CNN the other night. The only thing that Bruni has to offer is “Hate Trump”. The only question is, why are the Democrats Against a Wall when they were For a wall? Answer? They hate Trump. Why did they propose 25 billion and then 1.3 billion and then nothing? I hope all of this backfires in their face in 2020.
1
I think a wall is what this fragile narcissist needs around his personality. It fits metaphorically. I think "the wall" represents the separation of the terrifying real world and Trumps insular psyche. Yes, there not enough concrete for his Ego.
In the real world there can be no contiguous wall which would be impossible simply from geographic constraints. Walls will fail when it comes to desperate people trying to outrun death.
My prediction is that Trump will destroy the government until the people remove him. This is what the shrinks have stated will happen. The republicans can stop the pain now or be forced to later when the people cry uncle.
1
"Whatever it takes to salvage his pride." That line is a perfect summation of not only the last two years, but his entire business career. This is DJT's personality, his approach to governing, and is emblematic of what we will be faced with for another two years, barring indictments or impeachment for any or all of the 17 investigations of this amoral, narcissistic, wannabe leader of the free world
2
but...for opponents of the Great T, isn't this a big money-mouth opportunity? As in putting $ where the mouth is?
Here is what I mean, there are Gov workers facing missed car payments, eviction, mortgage problems... put together an operation to provide, GIVE, them cash to get past that.
There are Dem pols sitting on campaign funds, Unions with cash, churches...even plain ol' 20 buck kick in citizens. Set up a "charity", get a web site, establish a cluster fund, construct a network of folk to administer pay outs to the most threatened (for that, since Gov workers are mostly unionized they could have the best administrators already at hand), hand out cash, repeat. As long as it takes.
Do something real and memorable to ameliorate the fallout from this political stand off.
Trump has a serious personality disorder. It's a mental illness that isn't amenable to therapy or even medication. He must be voted out. Serving another term places this nation in serious jeopardy. Why don't people understand this?
BRAVO...I could not have said it better...(smiles!)
The response from many republican congressman interviewed on the morning news shows, was their relief that trump acted very presidential in his presentation last evening. Two years in office and their first comment was he looked presidential. Amazing.
Reminds me when raising my children the joy my wife and I felt when either child used the toilet correctly after months of urgings, they looked so grown up.
1
Thank you Frank Bruni for a concise description of the loony toon that is the presidency.
1
I read a comment yesterday from a 45 supporter who said his "policies" were harming her family, quote....
"He's not hurting the right people".
Telling ?
Stop calling the Liar in Chief's statements fiction. THEY ARE LIES. No money for a wall--money for reasonable border security--fine---although really it is a manufactured problem to prevent focus on Manafort's treason and Trump's no doubt complicity.
2
Trump and Melania descended the escalator of Trump Tower and defamed every person south of the US Border.
Rational people throughout this country agree that we need to tighten security. Irrational people claim the Sky is Falling. I guess we can stop calling him Mr. President and start calling him Chicken Little.
2
@Arlene- Yes, Biden should repeatedly call him Chicken Little while campaigning to win the Presidency. That will certainly get his goat!
1
I think we all know the 'wall' thing is symbolic, and that is why there is so much irrational behavior over it. Anyone who is halfway rational knows two things: 1. The United States has benefitted from hard working, law abiding, immigrants, and 2. Immigration needs to be regulated according to laws passed by Congress. So why is it so hard to just do it? It is so hard because Donald Trump is such a lying grifter that he can only lead that part of the population that is xenophobic or terminally greedy. That is the problem.
2
@Paul - Or unable to engage in critical thinking due to lack of education.
1
I note that 52 places to visit in 2019 is 2nd favorite in trending articles.
Why not a list of "52 Places to Send Trump"?
1
@Liz - #1 Russia, #2 Saudi Arabia...
1
Surreal? Every single day!
Trump was inaugurated two years ago, and Republicans had total control of government for his entire Presidency, yet the ambiguity of the wall remains. Now, in the latest attempt to justify the wall, the Republican party and their minions, are once again talking about the Clintons' immigration policies and speeches.
The way back time machine has discovered that the Clintons mentioned a border wall, or fence or whatever you want to call it. And everyone knows what a Clinton represents to Trump and his supporters. Pixie dust that cures all, and absolute vindication for Trump's proposed policies.
Which brings me back to the first paragraph.
We don't know what the wall is. Trump doesn't know what the wall is. Republicans don't know what the wall is.
Two years later, and all we have is an empty "the wall" campaign slogan tinged with the usual dog whistles in every, single, Trump speech.
And Mexico isn't paying for it.
1
Trump's "wall" is nothing more than a simplistic, uninformed idea he got and thought would sound good during a campaign. It's the kind of idea you'd hear from a drunk in a bar, the plan being based more on how much beer had been consumed than on any facts about what our southern border actually looks like. There are indeed areas where a barrier is needed . . . any already exists, needing only improvement. In other areas, a barrier isn't even possible because of landscape. And many areas are privately owned and would have to be taken from its owners through eminent domain. Most private owners don't appreciate having their land ripped away from them, so many lawsuits would hold up any work on a "wall." What's really needed is renovation of barriers that already exist, some new barriers if and where they're feasible, more border control and judicial personnel, and more electronics. That's the difference between Trump and the rest of society. He wants a simplistic solution that is more fantasy than solution, and others want a combination of solutions based on what's needed and possible in different areas.
1
The people should immediately raise money to build a wall, but not at our southern border. It should encircle Donald Trump. I will personally pay for the roof.
3
"The Wall Is a Symbol of Donald Trump’s Neediness(stupidity). Borrowed from, “Fixed fortifications are monuments to man’s stupidity. If mountain ranges and oceans can be overcome, anything by man can be overcome” Gen. George Patton. If the US built a wall with a Mote full of crocodiles and water moccasins from Texas to California the cartels would still find a way to get their drugs in. Address the poverty in Central America and the despair in America.
3
I will agree with the Columnist aboutTrump Wall. Its need for Trump ego and he want his Wall to be his Mount Rushmoor.
1
Hey, here’s a headline:
“Loopy President Screams and Mutters at Country: Self-Professed Progressives Blame Media for Reporting Event”
I do not want to hear one more word from people who didn’t vote, voted for Jill Stein, or share Trump’s views on the media.
I also want a pony for Christmas.
1
Would a wall on the southern border have stopped Stephen Paddock, the Vegas hotel shooter? Would it have kept out Omar Mateen, the Pulae nightclub shooter? Or Robert Bowers the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter?
What percentage of US crime is committed by those coming in illegally from Mexico?
Regardless, Trump said Mexico would pay. If he shows us a check from Mexico specifically saying that it is for the wall then we can move ahead. He never said the U.S. would pay so there is nothing to discuss
4
I am not discounting the struggle, suffering and challenges at the southern border but if the situation is at humanitarian crisis proportions as Trump professes every news media with international reporters from around the world, every NGO, the UNHCR, etc. would be assembling at the border to offer aid. Remember the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe.
If the situation is so dire why does it take Trump till Thursday, almost 20 days from shutdown to get his rump down there?
What makes absolutely no sense is if the country is under invasion as he claims then why would the president, the protector of the nation, shutdown the government so it runs significantly less efficiently and straining the people and systems still functioning to the brink?
One would think that an experienced businessman would flood resources to areas of need rather than deplete them deliberately unless said businessman wanted the system to fail.
That’s what I think Putin has instructed Trump to do or else...
4
During the campaign, his handlers realized the wall and immigration were the only issues he could stay focused on. Also his supporters loved it and cheered that he would build a wall and Mexico would pay for it. It is an example of a dog whistle. It plays to the prejudieces of his supporters against these immigrants. It has nothing to do with security or immigration. If one was serious about illegal immigration one would have serious economic penalities for the employers who hire them or create work permits allowing them to go back and forth across the border legally.
Did anyone view his facial expressions during the speech? To me it seemed strange and scary. Also his constant lies especially from the oval office and his praise of himself are also scary.
1
After this is all over, if we're not a collective smoking ruin, can we please have a global discussion about psychopathy, a plan to recognize it early in children with possible interventional criteria and plans, and most of all, a consensus that we never let another psychopath or even sociopath run for office, run a corporation or so much as a PTA meeting, ever again?
This is a guy who forged a physical exam document attesting to his Extreme Good Health, somehow conned his 'doctor' into saying he wrote it (now denied) and even though it was an obvious bad joke, the reality of the situation was hardly discussed in the media. He was given pass after pass after pass from obvious criminal behavior going back decades. His Daddy's wealth and a crew of 'lawyers' AKA 'fixers' protected him.
Now you're surprised that he's holding the entire government hostage?
3
Nearly all policy debates center on Trump's neurotic personality and lack of character. Fact checks simply aggregate the score of lies and misstatements. (He already qualifies for Guinness Book of Records for prodigal.) What is troubling is the political establishment can do no better than to bate him. And the media no better than to vilify him. All we get is righteous indignation from the political critics...and hardly keen efforts to address what are deemed vital developments for a 21st century US society. Why not a quid pro quo? $5 billion for a wall with $5 billion for...? What social innovations have our solon on the agenda that would clearly win the public's sympathy? Make them despise the squander on the wall? Why has Trump's audacity stunted any orderly efforts to boast an acclaimed legislative agenda for the fortunes of the land's coastal and inland residents?
2
It’s really interesting how so many reporters simply do not investigate nor report the facts of the tremendous burden imposed on the citizenry by the existence of immigration loopholes and rules that , in part, create the problem. More telling is the lack of any interest in actually solving the problem.
Pelosi and Schumer looked like an SNL skit responding to the Presidents remarks. The Democrats should be very careful here, I believe they have risen this horse about as far as they should because the citizens “get it” even if Congressional Democrat leadership doesn’t.
I recall something called the “grand compromise” back in the Obama era which promise to address immigration reform once and for all. The Republicans rejected it. The onus is on the GOP to step up to real reform that is humane and sensible for guest workers, employers, asylum seekers. There is room is extremism on both sides.
Bravo. Excellent insight and analysis.
3
I regret that Frank's column and the majority of the comments are pop psychoanalysis of Trump -- "Donald Trump's Neediness" --, rather than serious discussion on the merits or lack of merit of a border wall.
I oppose the wall because of its cost, certain failure to stop the flow of drugs or criminals, harmful environmental effects, and the racism it displays. But these issues should be the focus of our argument, not Trump's personality.
3
Forget Concrete. Forget Steel. Tell Trump he is going to get a Virtual Wall, which is a new, much stronger method in building. He then can say he has the most modern Wall in all of history, declare victory and the rest of us can get on with our lives.
5
Trump's faux compassion is a sign of how desperate he is to get this wall. Heart and soul? No chance Donny wrote this speech. Who could ever believe Trump cares about anyone other than himself?
3
As far as I am concerned, he has violated his oath of office and the impeachment papers for both him and McConnell should be filed and voted on. I have heard the idea floated that since ALL federal workers are Democrats, it does not matter to him if they get paid. It does not matter to me, a taxpayer, if either one of these men are ever paid AGAIN. Work ethic appears to be a true challenge to them both.
The idea that a President of the United States would willfully endanger the health, safety and stability of ANY American family is both revolting and, in my mind,criminal. These people work to keep us safe, to keep our planes in the air, and our food and drugs tested for our health, federal law enforcement works every single day to thwart those who would harm us....Federal courts are closed, parks and museums are shuttered, drug trials for patients are suspended. We taxpayers are being blackmailed by the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump continues to appeal to our fears......I refuse to hide under the bed and quiver over his manufactured, and frankly, racist attempts to arouse his base that grows increasingly smaller as he flails around with a new crisis every single day...
America is simply exhausted by his endless and needy dramas....And, good people are now being challenged by them. It's time to face the reality that this particular adventure is causing harm to us all....And our enemies watch with glee at how far we have allowed this to go.
He should resign....
6
Every network that carried the 10 minutes of Adderall fueled lies last night should have to file a campaign contribution with the FEC, and should be fined for exceeding the limits of donations to an individual campaign. The Republican candidate ran fundraising ads before and after to supporters in conjunction with the stunt.
This is all a distraction. Crooked Donald is trying to divert the news cycle away from the important news of his corruption, crimes, and illegitimate selection for office.
The IMPORTANT story yesterday? A Russian agent present at the infamous Trump Tower meeting was charged, and Manafort attorneys accidentally let slip direct evidence of Trump Russia collusion.
2
Let's get to the facts. Those who would blame Pelosi for the shutdown are wrong. Trump freely took responsibility for the shutdown in his meeting with the Dems. Those who would blame Dems for the federal workers being cut off from pay are wrong. Congress passed a Bipartisan temporary spending bill which would have kept the government running and Trump agreed to sign. Then the tv blowhards weighted in and trump refused it. And for those who blame the Dems for the shutdown and those Americans not getting paid, imagine the suffering of the families driven out of Central American countries because of gang and drug violence. Who are you really more concerned for? Women and children whose lives are at stake or federal employees who have to wait for some back pay?
1
Wake me up when someone at FoxNews writes this. Until then, the status will remain quo. Apparently the only people in the Fourth Estate that can change minds are Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should be negotiating with them.
@Stewie - Add Rush.
Frank Bruni you are the best of the best columnists! All others to my knowledge have completely ignored the wonderful, hilarious comment of Nancy Pelosi: "I don't know what he wants now, maybe a beaded curtain." The woman is a genius . No doubt about it, and you are too. Best wishes from one of the 10- percent- oldest generation.
Did anyone notice that Trump did not end his misbegotten speech with “God bless you. God bless America.” Seems to me it’s the first time I have ever heard a president omit this from an address. It’s certainly the only remark from him that I could have backed up. What a farce.
2
@JL - Steve Miller forgot.
1
Well, you have to admit that we've heard comparatively little about the Mueller investigation for the couple of weeks that immigration has seized the president's imagination. Perhaps that is the point.
1
GO, FRANK!!!!
Fantastic.
More, please.
1
The problem on the southern border is identical to Syrians fleeing a civil war and trying to build a better life in Europe. Closing our eyes to these people’s plight makes us no better than animals. Forget the wall and focus on the root problem. Fix the root problem and caravans will stop. Closing our eyes and people die and we assisted in their killing.
He wants a wall to mount all those TRUMP signs coming off buildings where occupants are demanding their removal. It's either a wall or the landfill.
1
I have the strongest feeling that even if Trump got his money for his wall, that'll be it. It will die there and the money won't get spent because he really doesn't really have a plan how to get the thing actually built. That's not to say the Dems should cave. They absolutely should not because that would set a bad precedent. Let the Republicans figure out how to climb out of the big hole they've dug. It's their creature in the White House. They gave him the nomination; they own him and the shutdown now.
Correct. For starters, it is not nearly enough money for a wall of that size.
1
Well, I think Trump has finally hit a wall if you will excuse the allusion. He is running out of space literally to support his lying. That this would happen was always obvious to me from the start. However, what really shocks me is that 40% of the American population still share in the paranoia of his alternate universe. I keep asking myself what kind of culture could produce such an enormous number of vulnerable people like this. It is truly frightening!
2
Real men don’t need props
Concrete looks tougher than steel slats.
The President likes it known that he works in construction.
( alternative titles )
Trump, “Man of Steel Wall”, is a Republican box office bomb. Mueller’s “Justice League”, years in the making and soon to be released will be the blockbuster hit of the twenty-first century, playing to cheering crowds the world over.
2
But a wall worked so well for Troy.
2
Many thanks for the summary. No way I was going to watch and listen to Mr. Trump. He has beat this dead horse into a pulp.
1
The wall is a totem to insisting Trump right and the other is wrong, evil
for not recognizing it. We fear all those immigrants that are trying by boat to take over Europe.
Wait SEAWALL SEAWALL.
Why does D Trump need a “beaded curtain.”?
Great many answers can come from the minds of "reliable" psychiatrists. That's my "systematic feeling" as a mental health professional.
It is a tragedy that an advanced, prosperous, "educated" nation is not able to pull together all the resources of fields such as sociology, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, logic, ethics etc to guide its confused people and their leaders!
1
What would Trump do if his tenants didn't pay him timely for their apartments? I bet there are some stories about his lack of understanding.
1
It’s all about his ego. Not so much winning the fight, as much as leaving a permanent structure that he feels will bear his name in perpetuity.
He wants “The Trump Wall”, but Border Security? Where’s the ego massage in that?
Trump showed more interest in the victims of illegal aliens, than he ever showed in the victims and survivors of mass shootings.
When trying to save American lives, regulating assault weapons will be much more effective than a wall.
1
Years ago, networks made the decisions not to cover people who run on the field at baseball games because they didn't want to encourage that type of behavior.
Yet, the Reality Show Con Artist was broadcast on all the major networks and cable channels when they knew he was going to lie. Even Las Vegas took bets on how many times he was going to lie.
Studies show the mere repetition of a lie makes it more plausible to people so the grifter in chief's mission was accomplished.
I understand that in a crowded media environment, the networks are as desperate for eyeballs and ears as the coward in chief and he provides great entertainment.
That is why it is up to citizens to ignore him as much as possible and to keep the conversation focused on his crimes, his unfitness for office and his treasonous (according to an ex-CIA chief) performance in Helsinki.
Everything else is just a deflection. Otherwise we are just fulfilling the prophesy of the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death".
1
"Even this deep into a presidency of such incompetence and amorality, he deserves a hearing..."
No Donald Trump doesn't! The POTUS deserves a hearing but we don't have a POTUS we have self-serving Donald Trump who, with a penchant if not a compulsion for making false statements, is due no such courtesy.
"Bunched up and boxed in." Frank Bruni, this is a brilliant analysis of a desperate ego at work. He is stuck in his fantasyland wanting to be more of a big shot than he already calls himself. Thanks to journalists who keep beaming true light around his mean box. His smallness iced with pompous bravado would be laughable if this nation's global reputation were not at stake.
1
Trump has already built a wall of lies and self-deception around himself. It's time to build a wall around him and his collaborators--heaven knows, there are ample reasons. That wall can be of concrete and can also be their tomb.
Forget Trump's lies. He lies about the day of the week if he can delude himself that he wins the day.
Ask yourself why, when for two years Republicans controlled the House and the Senate (and thankfully that ended in November 2018), they only put forward ten proposals for Trump's vanity wall none of which, when filibustered by Senate Democrats because they were ridiculous (remember Mexico paying for the wall), did not result in a government shutdown. What we are witnessing is Republican pique for losing an election 'bigly', punishing federal workers because voters chased the Republican majority from the U.S. House.
This is not a stalemate between the president and democrats. The republican controlled house and senate refused for two years to provide funding for this wall. The people don’t want this wall . This is a statelmate between the president and the United States of America.
2
The wall should be made of Legos, Denmark can pay for it, and Ai WeiWei can design it.
If we cave to his demands for wall funding he'll learn that shutting down the government on purpose and holding hundreds of thousands of American workers hostage until he get what he wants ACTUALLY WORKS.
And he'll do it again.
1
I wish the Democratic response had been by AOC and Rashida. Then I would have watched the whole thing.
As bad and as ruinous as Trump is, he is a sideshow to the real governance issue of our time: the special interests takeover of the federal judiciary. This assault, years in the planning, will impact American society long after Trump is a footnote. Why? Because the assault is intended to undermine the independence of the Judicial Branch of government and bring it under the thumb of right-wing ideologues who want to abandon civil liberties, reproductive rights, one person-one vote, while putting a twisted, heretical and deeply divisive Jesus Christ at the center of American law and culture.
Trump is a distraction. The true architects of the court takeover are monied interests using endless flows of anonymous cash through such as Judicial Watch, ALEC, the Mercer and Koch families, Adelson and others. Their CEO is Mitch McConnell, their enablers the docile, cowardly Republican Party.
Those of us who believe in the Rule of Law and an independent judiciary are forced to rely upon the fragile body of Ruth Bader Ginsburg not giving out or failing. As long as Trump remains in office, this is the real crisis confronting America.
3
@Paul Bernish, Boy are you right. I call it the privatization of the judiciary. The only viable argument for states rights left is that the project is not going so smoothly in some states like New York.
It seems to me that we, as Americans, find ourselves and our democracy in a crucible. We are at a point in our history that has been a long time in coming. The steady erosion of representative government - partially enabled by a poor educational system and sealed largely by Citizens United - has landed us in this absurd situation. We now have a demonstrably unfit and unhinged chief executive, and an entire major political party unwilling or unable to publicly recognize this fact; let alone do anything about it.
A crucible is "a situation of severe trial...leading to the creation of something new. I can only hope that the result of all of this is that we not only survive as a nation (not a given), but that we recognize what our founders so starkly understood: that government of, by and for the people requires the considered involvement of those people. At this point in our history this would, indeed, be "something new."
I fear that if we don't find a way to move past all of the distractions put up by those who would subdue us, we will lose our precious democracy. And we won't be able to get it back.
3
@Degobah Smith, Losing our precious democracy, yes—and perhaps more importantly our precious republic too. The last act of sovereign democratic majorities is sometimes to abdicate to dictatorship. Call that "democratic monarchy."
Trump's demand for billions of taxpayer dollars for a wall on the Mexico border simply reveals the limitations of his knowledge and intellect. Physical barriers have limited effectiveness and should not be the primary focus of any national security investment. A determined adversary will always find a way to go over, under, around or through a wall. Just ask the French how well their Maginot line worked to stop the Germans in 1940. If the Donald wants a Trumpinot line as a monument to himself, he should pay for it himself and then ask Mexico to reimburse him.
4
Probably the larger percentage of us just want this argument to go away and MAYBE we can get some help on schools, environment, housing, medical care, etc. - i.e. the basics -the issues that are making life ever harder for most American families. And all these issues are capable of being addressed and managed in ways that make most lives better if we stop obscene spending on defense
Trump won't let it go away and the Dems are dug in as well. We are reduced to sophomoric arguments and fact checking.
If we the people do two things - get active in improving our local communities and vote in every election at all levels things will get better.
If we all just chose sides and descend into hating each other we are doomed.
2
Boats. Don't forget Mexico has a long coast and the U.S. has a lot of landing spots. That would be even harder to monitor than the land border. There are long sections of the Mexico - U.S. border that are physically impossible or massively dangerous to cross (or even find a downed plane). I doubt Trump knows that since he did not go west of the Mississippi before being elected.
2
About 70% of those polled think Trump is "off the rails." He is a threat to our domestic and foreign national security. In other times the two parties would reel the president in or remove him. But not now because the Republicans either fear or support the extreme right wing.
Yes, I get it that you cannot remove presidents because you disagree with them. However, we do not have a fully functioning government. What an ideal time for a Putin or other threat to take advantage of our distraction with inept leadership. If Trump does not reopen the government, I say the twenty fifth amendment should be invoked since Trump does not have the ability to carry out his oath of office.
12
Thank you for writing this. Yes, DT likes to build things, large things, tall things, things with his name on it, that is his life, they define him. This fight is about DT as the "great negotiator", governing, etc. It's about exposing him as a fraud, I feel sorry for the man, but I'm pretty sure he feels nothing but his need, his feet doug in until he gets what he wants like a 2yo. He'll find a way, he always has, or bust. But, blame Mitch McConnell, he has the power to end this all click of his gavel. He is holding us hostage to DT's insanity. Congress has already agreed on how to proceed, the only issue is finding the mix that has the votes to override the inevitable Trump veto. Write your senators, especially the Republicans, now. Put the baby to sleep.
3
@philip Mitch McConnell is no dictator, but he leads the senior house of the first branch of government.
The cancerous growth of the second branch, the presidency, once seemed not to be mortal. Mitch seems not to understand this issue.
This is a republic, not a monarchy. We do not delegate law-making powers to any one person. We need the Senate, the senior house, to lead again and to join the project to legislate Trump's presidency back into the constitutional bounds set forth in Article 2, not to make laws but "to see that the [existing] laws are faithfully executed." Either that, or to legislate this kind of presidency out of existence entirely.
The whole promise of "the wall" goes back to one simple thing. He never expected or wanted to win. The Trump Presidential run was a publicity stunt, and, as such, He could say any crazy thing he wanted to because it wasn't going to matter.
16
@Lawrence Kucher
I guess he underestimated how much help the Russians would be.
Big egos and the presidency go together. Trump's first formal national address is an occasion, according to Mr. Bruni, to announce that Trump is "cramped" by practical constraints of the office. Maybe, but that would seem to be an unlikely occasion for amateur psycho-analysis. If Trump is showing signs of being cramped by the office, then that would suggest maturation, not regression. Which is it? Is he "cramped" or just plain "crazy"? Probably both aren't true. Border security is not a crazy idea, or he wouldn't be sitting in that room.
President Trump's shut down vanity wall is his way to demand the loyalty of Senate Republicans that he knows he will need. The implied threat is that Trump will unleash his wrath on them if they defect. Time will tell who gets trumped.
3
A number of commenters here have mentioned Trump's obsession with a wall is due to it being a tangible, material monument to him and his MAGA-inspired governance. An Edifice Complex, if you will.
So I say, let's build him one. If the wall is to be a monument, it doesn't much matter where it's built, right? How about around Mar-A-Lago? It could indeed be a big, beautiful wall. Trump could even put his name on it in big, gold letters, as he likes to do.
And maybe if we build it there, it'll at least hide some of the idiocy from view.
7
Like all strong men, the Donald needs to continually prove to his followers that he’s the biggest and baddest of them all. Capitulate now and he’s a lame duck going into the primaries.
1
You have written, "He came across as cramped, frustrated and forced to plead when he’d much rather command. He’s bunched up and boxed in." Hard to argue about that statement, but the government is still shut down, a payday has been missed, and there is still no end in sight.
His speech was a half-truth mess and the Democratic response wasn't all that hot either.
This is now up to Congress now. Trump doesn't care. Congress should.
1
If Trump's rationale for building an unnecessary wall is the number of deaths brought about by illegal immigrants, why isn't he promoting sensible gun control in the US? There have been many more deaths and injuries at the hands of Americans with assault weapons. This is all the evidence I need that crime is not the reason Trump wants a wall. Yes, it's ego. But it's also pure, unadulterated racism.
14
trump must go. He lost the election, he does not lead America, only his supporters. Everything in the Mueller investigation points to a shady campaign at the very least. There is no doubt in my mind that Russian influence is the reason trump sits in the Oval Office. He does not believe in the First Amendment, except for himself. He believes in his enemies more than he believes in our intelligence. His immigration policy is heartless and without reason. Families must not be separated because trump feels like it. We are hard-pressed to find anyone less suited to the job of president. This charade of leadership must end. Start impeachment now. We cannot wait for the next election, trump does not deserve any more accommodations to his miserable presidency. America was great, we still had our dignity, prior to 11/8/2016.
3
Hear hear.
As short as the speech was, it was nearly unbearable in its dishonesty and in the now familiar spectacle of Trump's desperate ambition to have his way at any cost. Over the course his personal, professional and political life, Donald Trump has learned that lying is the best way to make his case and to clinch the deal with whichever set of rubes he wants to sell something to. The shoddier the product, the more exaggerated the claims the pitchman has to make. Hopefully more and more Americans are waking to the reality there's a snake oil salesman in the Oval Office and that what he's selling is no good for us. "Why" he's selling it has nothing to do with protecting America. It's about propping up an ego that was deformed long before anyone outside of Queens ever heard of Donald Trump. He would be pitiable or possibly just laughable if he weren't so dangerous. Political power mixed with sociopathic tendencies and narcissism results in capricious, autocratic rule unless rigorously checked by other, more rational forces.
5
Wow, wow, wow, what’s left to say.
No, manhood is not hitched to this and we are bigger than this. I hope in my lifetime never to witness another period like this.
Sometimes the course of democracy is painful and difficult.
Hopefully, God will bless America!
2
Trump's real crime is delivering on his promises. This has been ridiculed relentlessly, described as everything from "pandering to his base" to "neediness."
The more he delivers on his promises, the more he is reviled. There's a name for that.
1
Nope. His promises are simply crazy. The tariffs, the wall, the gutting of the EPA, the ACA...all are wrongheaded. The icing is that he in incompetent and a liar who demeans anyone not in his cult. I do not respect him because he clearly does not respect the Constitution or the majority of American voters who rejected him at the polls.
1
@AACNY
Trump's real "crime" is yet to be uncovered; eventually it will be. Trump's "problem" is being a compulsive serial liars who is incapable of governing. He is "ridiculed endlessly" because he makes a fool of himself on a regular basis because he ran for President knowing full well that he wasn't qualified for the position, made up stuff to get votes, refuses to follow the advise of his advisors and fires the ones who don't kiss his ring, and now he knows he's trapped in a corner. He hasn't delivered on his so-called "promises," and he is reviled because his a narcissistic, corrupt serial liar who has proven himself to possess neither the temperament or ability to be an effective President.
1
The situation with Trump is depressing, and I (like many Americans) count down the days until he is no longer in the Oval Office. He has accomplished nothing. He has alienated our closest allies. He throws hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens out of work simply on a whim to prove a point. He lies.
He despises and ignores the past accomplishments of former US Presidents, while proving he is the worst to ever occupy the office. He could even be a traitor to this country, although to be fair that remains to be seen.
He has divided this country and that is the worst thing of all. A good president brings people together, and shows why he was elected to be the leader of the free world. It is nothing but sad, and finally, after two long years of suffering by a greater number of people than you could possibly imagine, other folks are finally standing up to him.
But that's what Americans do. They will take the abuse for a while, and then they will put an end to it, using the rule of law, the vote, the things that made this country what it has been, and could be.
5
Seldom has a President's wallet needed so much shoring up. One instance where you can take Trump literally? "I will build the wall." "I'm a great builder." "A wall would be simple for me." He remind us that we knew he was a snake before we took him in, and then award the contracts to himself.
4
We don't need to be completely Trump-obsessed, but we do need to be Trump-concerned. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, Trump secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bullrings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a linguistic "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
Mr. Bruno makes a case for the House to begin impeachment proceedings immediately; obviously the President is unfit to govern by virtue of emotional and mental instability, paranoias which are both crippling the nation and his ability to rationally administer the republic.
2
Trump has NEVER been told NO in his rotten life and this is what happens. What is more worrisome are Trump's supporters, they are going crazy and truly believe every word Trump says. I'd also like to point out that is any of us mortals acted like Trump we would have been arrested.
2
I support a wall, if one could be built, around Trump and his lying nonsense. The American people are likely to be the only ones capable of building one, and they'll have to wait until 2020. In the meantime, this latest fall may be one from which all of Trump's horses and and all of Trump's women won't be able to put him back together again.
2
I think the bottom line is that what he wants, more than anything, is a literal monument to himself. A 100-foot-tall statue would be ideal. But a structure such as those of Washington or Jefferson or Lincoln would be fine. He knows nobody is going to allow that in Washington, DC. This wall concept is the closest thing he could get to such a memorial. He has hotels, casinos, golf courses and other things with his name on them. But what he really craves is some physical entity to commemorate his time in office. If Pelosi and Schumer agreed to discuss THAT, I believe he'd sit down with them immediately.
2
Thank you Mr. Bruni....that sums it up....but where do we go from here? We've all known and have named the problems with trump and it just gets worse.
1
It feel like what Larry Summers coined as stagflation to me but I could be wrong.
1
The idea of a ticker of real-time corrections to Trump's false remarks is really appealing. I feel this could work wonders.
3
Even if things once seen as important, as you suggest in your letter, Bill, for a wall that had support from the Clintons and Obama, that path to where we are now w/the stand-off for federal workers w/o pay, now the government has shut down over a halt in the decision to move forward for more billions of dollars to erect a larger barrier between two friends, and more as refugees from Central America join the immigration numbers, even as numbers have plummeted. The all of nothing approach of Trump is like a general in the past who continued sending troops, or cannon fodder into battle regardless of the losses mounting. POTUS seems a loose cannon, spending money as though at a casino, and for projects that have neglible worth, if not negative consequences. Discuss the wall and the surrounding subject of immigration, drugs, etc. Open the government. Good grief.
2
I had not thought of this wall business in the context of Trump's ego, but yes, as a lifelong New Yorker it suddenly dawned on me: he only wanted this wall so he could have his name on it. That's how he's operated in New York City for 50 years: Trump Plaza; Trump Tower; and in Atlantic City with the casinos. And now he thinks of a border with Mexico as the Trump Wall.
12
Going forward why can't the networks require that anyone who is taking public airtime swears an oath that they will use that time to tell the truth. If it is found that they lied, they could be criminally charged,
7
Can anyone explain why a wall is not part of the Defense budget?
The mission of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force are to fight foreign wars, they're only job in this county is if military forces of Mexico, Canada or another country invade us, how likely is that?
Total defense costs (DoD, VA, Homeland Sec, interest) are over $1T/year, very little of that to do with our defense.
So what's the problem with spending 0.05 % of that for something that may not be needed but will reopen the fed govt?
3
In military terms a wall is an obstacle, and in order to be effective it must be covered by observation and fire. If the Army built it and used it according to doctrine, they would also have to man observations posts to watch the fence, and deploy forces to react when someone was seen crossing. The operational costs in money and manpower would be enormous.
There may be Posse Comitatus laws that limit military activity at the border.
The Army also knows a wall is a waste of time. Without observation and deployable forces it will merely slow crossers a few minutes. Furthermore, the network of new roads built to support construction and maintenance would open up remote areas and give drug smugglers and others quick access into the US interior.
A wall would be expensive, ineffective, and would make the problem worse than it is now. The US government knows this.
9
There may not be a crisis at the border, but there is certainly an immigration crisis in this nation. The GOP gets this. The Democrats do not. The GOP has a plan -- a ham-handed and draconian plan, but a plan. The Democrats have no plan. The best decision in the right decision, which Trump has not offered. But for leaders, the worst decision is no decision at all. Which is what we get from the Democrats.
4
Yes, good for the GOP, they recognize that some people are coming into the country illegally. They want to choke that down to nothing, oh wait no they don't. What they want is to keep this issue alive for votes. They want the cheap labor to continue to come in, because it does undercut American workers. That's the entire strategy of the Republicans. Use cheap foreign labor, employ people who have no rights in this country as citizens, and keep the average worker down while continuing to get a segment of them to vote against their own interests. Perfect.
26
@John Jabo
The Democrats have a plan. You should pay more attention. They just passed a bill to work towards a solution, too bad the Senate won't send it on to Trump.
1
The Dems proposed a compromise in 2013. The Repubs turned it down. Your premis is wrong.
1
President Trump says a steel barrier is the only solution to prevent illegal immigration along our U.S.-Mexico border. Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Schumer say Trump is manufacturing a crisis where no crisis exists.
A comprehensive, unbiased analysis is needed that identifies the need for a wall and the pros/cons of building a wall vs. simply maintaining the current fence system.
Various questions need to be answered, including:
Is there any increased security provided by building a wall?
Are there technological solutions (cameras; sensing devices; other electronic systems) that are less expensive than a wall that would provide a similar degree of border security?
What are the overall costs to build and maintain a steel wall over the entire border and/or over a significant portion of the border where illegal crossings have been shown to regularly occur?
Would border patrolling still be needed to maintain border security?
How would tunneling and climbing over be prevented by building a wall?
Would increased border patrolling provide sufficient border security at a lower cost than a wall?
These and other questions need to be answered, backed up with data developed in a scientifically rigorous manner, before the administration will be able to convince Congress, the Senate, and the country on the immediate need to invest billions of our tax dollars towards building a border wall.
4
Hold on. We’re not focusing on the fact that it’s not Mexicans but Central Americans fleeing dystopian, dysfunctional governments who are trying to get asylum. Focusing on root causes ought to include dealing with Central American dictators and gangs. It might take a military mission to fix the problem but you could make a case that the pressure at the border is an act of war by those dictators. Finally, isn’t it interesting that the caravan started conveniently before the election? Vladimir, did you have anything to do with it?
8
Trump’s claim of a “humanitarian crisis of human suffering” at the southern border is true, but is because of Trump’s enforcement policies, separating children from their guardians without adequate procedures to reunite them or facilities and staff to manage and provide needed medical care and other necessities.
If Trump was sincere, and the stories of tragedy he put forth appealing to fear and sympathy were truly representative of immigrants who crossed the border at other than legal access points or by overstaying their visas, as is the case for most, then he would apply the exact same reasoning to gun control to eliminate assault weapons from civil society. He coldly accepts the true, obscene numbers of children, teachers and others killed by weapons which should only be found on the battlefields of war.
Citing what is really a vast minority of tragedies resulting from crossing the border at places other than access points, to get support for an expensive and ineffective wall while ignoring the real toll of tragic death, in American schools alone, caused by assault weapons and other unregulated gun accessories, is plainly hypocritical, and the guns are obviously more harmful and in need of legislative elimination than the threat at the border and the need for more fences or a wall.
The refusal of Trump and Republicans to move on gun control to end those deaths is proof of the illegitimacy of their argument for the border wall, where the consequences are far less severe.
6
Why not have a national referendum on the wall and its funding? It would give every side of the dispute an honorable way out of the impasse and the government shutdown could end. It would also be an uphill battle for wall supporters, but that is a challenge they should be willing to embrace. The referendum could be done in conjunction with regularly scheduled elections so the extra cost would be minimal.
If you agree with this idea, spread it around. Perhaps it could happen.
1
@Dave Barkman
We don't need a wall. Did we have a wall to stop Cubans from coming to our Country? Do we have a wall to stop terrorists from coming in from Canada? Enough of the nonsense.
1
One needn't resort to armchair psychologizing to understand or describe either side's intransigence. The wall is the ultimate symbol of Trump's election, presidential power, and political/cultural significance. Trump (and Trumpism) and the wall are virtually one and the same: Affirm or attack, each could be a proxy for the other.
Trump was elected by nativist types feeling besieged by the growing numbers and prominence of ethnic minorities, in an anti-immigrant tradition going back to the no-nothing party. This is not to disparage (though it may appear so) this group, but to simply acknowledge their not-unfounded belief that government and policy should serve the interests of those who are already here rather than extending largesse and diluting what ever bounty exists here by making it "hefker" ("up for grabs") to any foreigners that would come take it, by fair means or foul. This group won the election, and its opponents are devastated.
Opponents of Trumpism oppose the wall mostly because it is the ultimate victory of Trump and Trumpism.
To Trump however, the Wall is his ultimate campaign promise. To back down would be to unwin the election on behalf of himself and those who elected him. But (sadly for me, happily for his supporters), he *did* win the election. We Dems failed to keep him out of office and are paying the price. That's pretty much all this is about. To expect Trump to back down in such circumstances is a bit silly. Why would he surrender, when he won?
1
@Andrew
Did Republicans back down from McConnells saying he would do nothing except make Obama a one term President? Did Republicans back down when McConnell said Merrick couldn't be a Supreme Court Justice? Republicans are supporting a person who has sold out to Putin. Enough is enough.
15
@Andrew I partly disagree with your second paragraph. I don't think Trump was elected by "besieged nativist types". At least not primarily. I think he was elected by a combination of "Anyone but Hilary" types, "Ooh, I like him because he's on TV and he's rich" types, and those who may not have had an opinion one way or the other about immigration but suddenly developed one when Trump planted fear into their minds.
3
Trump could perform a great deed for America.
He could give $5.7b of his own money for building the wall.
He could claim it as a 'Gift to the Nation', and be forever remembered as a great benefactor to America.
It could be called "The Great Wall of Trump" and could even be seen from the moon!
His great munificence and global recognition would certainly appeal to his ego and be a lasting memorial for a President.
Also think of the money that, through his magnanimous beneficence, the American public is being saved.
I'm sure he'll agree!
So what about it Donald?
18
"It’s a victory for victory’s sake."
I beg to differ. Trump fashions himself a small-time developer and only later an equally small time celebrity. He doesn't even know what a treaty is, much less why he would care (unless someone tells him that his is special). Same thing for an alliance or doctrine or any other instrument that moves mankind forward. Life can be crude and profane and we look to our lead us toward a nobler plane. You're have to explain that to Trump first because there's not a fiber of the man's being that gets that.
6
America may not like China right now but the latter always learn from other people's mistakes, rightly or wrongly. For once, America should learn from Chinese history. The Great Wall of China may sound grand but the old 7 wonders of the world is just a tourist trap.It did nothing to stop any invasions throughout the centuries. Israel has a solid fence to box the Palestinians in, it only deepens the conflict. For a fraction of $5B, America could be the leader of South Americas sowing good seeds of never-ending dividends like the Marshall Plan post WWII
13
Back in the 1970s visiting West Germany (as it then was) I found myself standing next to the heavily fortified border fence erected by the East German Communists to separate them from West Germany. There were armed watch-towers at intervals as far as I could see. In spite of this armed barrier (and its concrete sister barrier separating East and West Berlin), hundreds of people managed to break through. Admittedly they were trying to get out rather than in, but the principle is the same. Physical barriers can be climbed over, tunnelled under, and flown over.
10
@Lionel Beck
Mr. Trump, tear down that wall. It only boxes you in. Tear down that wall.
Post election voter survey findings revealed that six percent of Trump voters reported that a wall was a high priority for them. Just six percent. While Trump’s incessant ranting about it has fomented more support, it appears to matter essentially to Trump. Why? Quite likely it has to do with his state of mind, but somewhat differently than the way Frank Bruni is describing.
The psyche creates metaphors of its reality. Our dreams show them to us. The psyche also projects its reality on the outer world. A high insurmountable wall is an apt metaphor for Trump’s defensive psychological relationship with other people. He builds and maintains walls within himself against the rest of humanity. It appears that we’re witnessing the projection of a man’s inner psychological orientation on to his outer world.
A therapeutic intervention is in order. Trump lacks the capacity for introspection that could help him gain consciousness of what is going on. Anyone know a good psychotherapist who can help this man?
5
He just wants another huge concrete slab with TRUMP emblazoned on it, paid for with other people’s money, in this case our tax dollars. It’s what he’s done for years. I don’t believe it has anything to do with border security at all - it’s a vanity project pure end simple.
20
I am not a Trump fan and did not vote for him. But why is building a physical barrier to reduce illegal immigration a bad thing? It won’t be perfect, but it does make a statement that we will do everything in our power to uphold our laws.
The countries that do immigration well, such as Canada, focus on legal immigration of smart and qualified people from other countries. How is illegal immigration of poor, unskilled immigrants helping us?
5
@Discern World. (1) Note that Canada does not have a Wall. (2) Trump's version of what you call "Everything" will cost taxpayers billions of dollars and will not fix any identified problem.
15
@Discern World
The children of this year's poor, unskilled immigrants will be the intellectual leaders of the future. Want to MAGA? Bring in fresh blood to help the country grow. Don't rely on those already rich and dominant--they have nothing to give except stagnation and rot and a desire to keep others down and out.
$5 billion is a pretty expensive “statement”.
A wall, in and of itself, is ineffectual. Anyone who served in the Cold War and had a chance to visit either Berlin or the Czech border can tell you that ... if they are being honest and not political.
You see, those border walls weren't just walls at all. The one around Berlin, for example, was two barriers separated by a "no mans land" of mines, trip wires, dogs and, of course, guard towers. And even with all that, and the high visibility, around 5,000 people made it through.
And how do I know what those "walls" looked like? I was there, in uniform, and I saw them.
The point here is, we can put down billions on a wall ... but it won't work. Even the heavily fortified border between east and west didn't work. Besides we already have hundreds of miles of barriers/walls/fence.
Yes, we need border security.
But border security is more well trained personnel. Border security is electronic monitoring said personnel can respond to. Border security is an overhaul and fix to our immigration mess that recognizes we NEED those workers from south of the border.
Border security isn't a wall. That's just a waste of money.
41
@rino "The one around Berlin, for example, was two barriers separated by a "no mans land" of mines, trip wires, dogs and, of course, guard towers."
Yes, I saw it too. And one thing no one is commenting on is the symbolism of the wall—what it says about US, that we'd put a blind, 30-ft. barrier up against desperate people who are trying to save their children's lives.
Note too that the wall is not being built against Canadians, even though there are many illegals from there in the country.
The net number of illegal immigrants in the country is declining. Immigrants do work Americans won't do. We need a thoughtful, decent immigration policy, not a fact-free hysteria with brutish ideas that simply won't work.
As the Coast Guard has said, immigration is a like a balloon: Squeeze it in one place and it bulges in another. The wall won't work, any more than the Great Wall of China did.
1
The Harvard-Harris poll is VERY friendly to the American President.
The end result was that a substantial majority said illegal border crossers, and the children they brought, should be RETURNED to their home countries. To that end, 80 percent (84 percent of Republicans, 79 percent of Democrats, and 78 percent of independents) favored hiring more immigration judges “to process people in custody faster.”
Penn’s polling found other results broadly favorable to the Trump approach to immigration.
For example, Penn asked, “Do you think we need stricter or looser enforcement of our immigration laws?” Seventy percent (92 percent of Republicans, 51 percent of Democrats, and 69 percent of independents) said stricter, while 30 percent said looser.
Penn asked whether respondents “support or oppose building a combination of physical and electronic barriers across the U.S.-Mexico border.” Sixty percent (92 percent of Republicans, 39 percent of Democrats, and 54 percent of independents) supported the barriers, while 40 percent did not.
Sixty-one percent (73 percent of Republicans, 49 percent of Democrats, and 60 percent of independents) said current border security is inadequate.
Penn’s polling also found overwhelming OPPOSITION to sanctuary cities.
3
His speech included a reference to "heart and soul", a clear attempt by his script writers to humanize the evil he represents.
23
I just have to say this, "Mr. Trump, tear down that wall."
29
I was more taken by his performance of reading his speech than the content, as that has not really changed. I rarely see moving images of him as I try to avoid the visuals. But I was left with the impression that Grandpa has a drug problem. Is it cocaine or is it nasal spray? It might explain his mood swings and his arrogance. Just wondering.........
14
I thought it was weird ... and painful to watch. It was as if he didn't even understand what the words meant. There was no natural speech rhythm or inflection, he pretty much ignored the punctuation ... and the sniffing!
10
@Colbert I think it's pills. He's sedated during his teleprompted speeches. Check the film.
1
Enough fentanyl to kill EVERY single American was brought into our country last year from Mexico. etc.- 2400 pounds.
If this isn't a war, when does Frank admit that it is?
4
Through ports of entry, not across the Southern border. Big difference. Terrible problem, but totally wrong to act like the wall would even begin to solve it. It would not.
33
@L'osservatore
If we have a fentanyl crisis, why don't we spend money on that then? Instead of on a wall that would not do anything about fentanyl.
More staff and equipment to search the cars, trucks, and containers that carry the low grade fentanyl through customs at border crossings. The more potent version of the drug arrives by mail from China. For that you need more funding for postal inspection, and diplomatic pressure on China to crack down on the shippers.
14
If there was no dependence on fentanyl, heroine or cocaïne there was no reason for this all.
Perhaps $5.7 Bln should be spent on educating people about the use of opioids.
11
So we all can go to Nancy's and Chuck's houses and party? They just proclaimed on national television they don't mind people coming in their home unannounced. As a matter of fact they seem enjoy it.
3
The wall will not solve the ‘problem’ of illegal immigrants because most overstay visas and come through ports of entry. Do your research.
1
Huh? How did you come to that conclusion? Please limit your response to facts: what was actually said and done.
Wonderful strawman.
When will you be taking care of homeless veterans in your home?
1
Trump probably also wants the wall because of the way people cheered every time he mentioned it at his campaign rallies. That sort of mass admiration is very reinforcing, particularly for a narcissist. No wonder Trump warmed to the idea of the wall, originally suggested to him as an easy way to remember immigration in his speeches. I agree with others here Trump is frightened of losing the support of his base.
9
What they cheered for was that Mexico would pay for the wall. Why have they forgotten that? Did they know it was a lie and they were in on it?
Donald Trump does not understand or respect democracy.
Decisions are made by majority vote in a democracy.
You don't shut government down if a vote doesn't go your way. That's what dictators do.
What Trump wants is fascism.
Trump has no respect for the Constitution.
Constitutional government requires Congress and the President to work together. Trump doesn't want that. He wants to bypass Congress. That's what dictators do.
First Trump shuts down our government. Now he wants to selectively open some departments. There is no pretense. This is dictatorship plain and simple.
23
@Harry Thorn It's not "decisions" but "laws" that are made by majorities in a democracy. When laws are made or abrogated by one person, whether or not he/she can make other non-legal decisions, it's called absolute monarchy, or dictatorship. But now and then in history sovereign democratic majorities have deliberately made laws that got them one-person rule. It's sad when it happens, as it did (I would argue) when the democratic republic of Germany (the Weimar Republic) invoked a constitutional emergency clause and abdicated to a dictatorship in 1934. It shouldn't happen here, because we are a republic, too, and have lasted longer.
Interesting that in his speech, Trump would invoke both heart and soul, given the lack of evidence that he possesses either.
28
"A barrier only to reason". Very well said Frank. Just like the Berlin Wall.
5
Frank Bruni, I am a professional writer and a psychologist--and this is one of the best articles I have ever read on any subject! Thank you for your astute analysis and insight. Nancy Love The Planet Peace Woman www planetpeace.love
12
"Other presidents have been untrustworthy, and others have had to be called out on it. But not like this. This is surreal."
Somebody should ask him, "Mr. President, are you aware you are misrepresenting reality? Or, are you so overwhelmed by meaninglessness and incoherence, that you simply have to keep hearing your own voice, regardless of what you are saying, in order to keep from plunging into a void?"
11
@Michael Joseph He. Doesn't. Care.
1
If ever built, I am imagining Donnie's wall a couple hundred years from now. It will be a tourist attraction, no doubt with Latino tour guides explaining what the original purpose of it was.
7
I agree.
I was considered an educator of graduate students about psychopathology. I think I have come up with a diagnostic category which represents D. Trump's lifelong, from childhood until now , his patterns of self expression: Oppositional Defiant Disorder: ODD; (Source- Mayo Clinic from The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder's (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association), criteria for diagnosing ODD which can continue into adulthood:
-Angry and irritable mood:
• Often and easily loses temper
• Is frequently touchy and easily annoyed by others
• Is often angry and resentful
Argumentative and defiant behavior:
• Often argues with adults or people in authority
• Often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults' requests or rules
• Often deliberately annoys or upsets people
• Often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior
Vindictiveness:
• Often spiteful or vindictive
• Has shown spiteful or vindictive behavior
ODD can vary in severity:
• Mild. Symptoms occur only in one setting, such as only at home, school, work or with peers.
• Moderate. Some symptoms occur in at least two settings.
• Severe. Some symptoms occur in three or more settings.
For some children, symptoms may first be seen only at home, but with time extend to other settings, such as school and with friends.
D. Trump needs and needed supportive psychotherapy; not military school, and then millions of dollars from his father.
10
@Lenny I love this. I am a twenty-year educator and am always impressed by the way our public schools intervene and support students w/a range of challenges/disorders. I have also witnessed the monied response: home or private schooling where the core issues are never addressed, where negative outcomes are always covered up and paid for. If DJT were not from money, he'd probably be in jail. IJS
11
@Lenny I love this. I am a twenty-year educator and am always impressed by the way our public schools intervene and support students w/a range of challenges/disorders. I have also witnessed the monied response: home or private schooling where the core issues are never addressed, where negative outcomes are always covered up and paid for. If DJT were not from money, he'd probably be in jail. I also happen to believe he may have Adult ADHD.
1
@TK NY Military Academy... where rich kids go after they punch a teacher and parents don't want to deal.
If a wall was so important to Republicans why didn't they fund it when they controlled Congress the last 2 years? Perhaps they too thought it was a waste of money and they didn't want to be associated with the boondoggle.
The Democrats have always said they consider the wall to be a waste of money.
20
@Sharon
What I want is nonstop, repetitive TV clips of Trump at his rallies talking about the wall and asking the rally goers "Who Is Going to Pay for It?" and the rally goers mindlessly shouting back "Mexico!" I would donate dollars upon dollars to the DNC or DCCC if they would right now, not in the campaign season air ads which I have described.
2
Lest we forget, the entire concept of "illegal immigration" was for the most part an artifact of the 1910s and 20s. Prior to this, for most, it was impossible to be an "illegal." The idea didn't even exist. The group that created the laws in the 10s and 20s that created "illegal immigration" had been members of white, protestant groups such as the Know Nothings, the Constitutional Union as well as the KKK. When you think about supporting the wall, please remember where the motives originated. Its important not to forget history.
16
"Should there be a crawl of words on the bottom of the television screen to correct him in real time?"
That would have been great.
13
I don’t understand why anyone would think a wall makes any sense at all. I think those wanting a wall may be just as baffled by any possible practicality but want anything Trump wants. It is that thing about how he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it. That may be the only truthful thing he has ever said.
7
Part out the Statue of Liberty and sell the them to pay for the wall.
The Torch would make a beautiful lawn ornament at one of Trumps resorts.
1
@Gerald Marantz, Perfect satiric turn; but satire is dangerous in these times and with executives showing only an occasional trace of irony, and a total lack of humor.
On Thursday, January 10, 2019, when the POTUS visits the Mexican border in Texas, the members of his so-called base, including Mitch McConnell and Sara Huckabee Sanders, should join him there. This opportunity could be used to build a wall around them and let them out only after the government shutdown is lifted.
5
While Trump's personal neediness drives him, that's not what the Wall is about. He's trying to stay out of jail. His only hope is in the support of his red hat followers. He needs to prove to them that he did everything in his power to get them that wall. It's a simple (umm) concrete metaphor for their core demand.
5
Anyone remember Colin Ferguson, the LIRR shooter? He defended himself in court, using a string of legal-y sounding mumbo-jumbo in a kind of kabuki parody of what a lawyer sounds like. It was ridiculous but the legal system had to go along with it even though everyone's jaw was on the floor.
Trump is like that. He's a crazy person saying insane things. (There aren't more than ten terrorists a day coming across the southern border. Drugs aren't pouring in over unsecured areas of the border. Border crossings aren't up. The southern border isn't remotely the main entry point for illegal entry into the country.)... But everyone acts like they're dealing with an actual presidential human because...they have to? Because some combination of electoral quirk and outright cheating resulted in this nut ascending to the presidency?
Thanks, Republicans, for giving us this warped liar. It was bad enough when he pretended to be a big-time business mogul on TV once a week. Now he's pretending to be a president every single day.
18
It certainly may be, as many are claiming, that Trump is insisting upon his $5.7 Billion for a useless wall to stroke his ego or to placate his ignorant base, but I would like to see some journalist "follow the money". Given Trump's background as a unethical greedy developer, I have to wonder if the reason he is so invested in getting money for his wall is because he will somehow manipulate any contracting that results so as to get a kickback (aka a bribe). Q: What does Trump care about more than his ego? A: money. Do any of the contractors who built the wall prototypes have a connection with the Trump Organization? Just asking...
11
If there’s not enough concrete in the country to mend Trumps ego we could switch the building material to good clean USA dug coal from Appalachia. It would give his base voters continued employment and a paycheck and once the coal is dug they could load it in their pick up trucks and deliver it right to the Rio Grande. No Central American or Mexican migrant would ever be able to climb a wall made of USA coal. That’s a proven fact.
4
We are going to build a wall. It's going to be so big, you'll be able to see it from space. You won't have to pay for it at all, because the Mexicans will pay for it. I'm such a great negotiator
that this concrete wall will last even longer than the Great Wall of China.
7
Yep, I think he envies the great dictator of China and wants to have a wall just as great, if not greater. Yep, Make The Wall Great Again. Going through the comments I am tempted to misspell the word E(.)ection that someone said he won and now needs to build the wall to prove that. And Thumbism is that great curse where its sufferers need to shout that their Thumb is BIG, bigger than anyone else’s.
And of course MAGA is the most obvious example of Thumpism because it would by implication confer on the announcer of the slogan the entitlement to claim that he’s the greatest of them all. Yep, mirrors mirrors on the wall!!
Here's an idea. Let's build a wall. Out of plywood or whatever. Make it 30 feet tall and 300 feet wide (the border wall consists of a road, the wall, another road, a fence and another road). A mock up, like a stage prop. Then install it in places like Cheyenne, WY. Block their main street. Set it up to separate one side of a school's playground from the other. Prop it up to divide their favorite state park. Stick it across the entrance to Yellowstone. See how they like it.
But don't stop there. This could be a traveling art installation. Raise money and send it to Tallahassee, Janesville, Jackson, Boise and every town that voted for Trump.
Why don't the majority of border dwellers want the wall? Because it's being built across our favorite places. Because we used to cross the border for a good, cheap breakfast whenever we felt like it, because our neighbors and family members live on both sides. It's not just a waste of money. It's a monstrosity.
28
Your suggestion immediately brings to mind the immense art installations created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Their 1976 "Running Fence" composed on nylon fabric and steel posts, was 18 feet high and nearly 25 miles long, installed and displayed north of San Francisco for 14 days, then removed. Maybe a traveling version in 2019 would make a point.
2
@SPPhil
Just what I was going to say: Christo would do it!
And at least he would be openly aware of the symbolism and meaning—and not think that lies about national emergencies would cover for it.
The walls, physically and psychologically, will help keep people out who are not supposed to be here.
1
@Christian Miller
No. It won't.
Say what you will, Trump’s speech was more interesting and compelling than the Democrats’ response. If there was any clear demonstration that we need new spokespersons, it was the wooden marionette Punch and Judy show put on by Chuck and Nancy.
3
@Clovis
His was not written by him. Get a clue he is just a manipulator with a large staff of writers for stuff he can't think of.
@Clovis. I didn’t watch to be entertained by a narcissist lying clown. The Democratic leaders presented facts that showed a wall is not the proper solution. Trump was selling snake oil.
Oh Clovis, bless your heart!
Trump's willingness to hold 800,00 federal workers hostage in the shutdown is based on the criticism he received from Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. Therefore, the President needs to keep the "false crisis" alive to maintain support from his base voters. In fact, a 2020 re-election fundraising effort took place just before and immediately after the Presidential address.
However, it's also a distraction to divert attention away from the Muller investigation and Trump's "flip-flop" on Syria.
23
President Trump does not really care about the wall. He sees every issue in terms of himself, his money, his motives. He's so vain he thinks this world is about HIM! End of story.
12
@Kate Parina
Thi President KEEPS promises. We haven't had one like THIS since - who? Lincoln, maybe?
He always spoke first about the border.
He will fix it if it can be fixed.
I just thank God we have him in the White House.
Sorry, but while you ignored news the past eight years, we learned everything about presidential vanity from Barack Hussein O. that we ever wanted to know.
The perfect irony is that your state will save more from an effective wall than any other.
My gosh Frank, you are good.
This is the best opinion piece I have read in months on this subject.
I remember when I was reading (and enjoying) your restaurant columns. I didn't imagine that you would turn into such a wonderful writer on much weightier topics.
10
Trump is a tiny person, really. Tiny, limited and narrow mind. Tiny, tiny heart - only able to care about himself. Maybe his family - let's ask Tiffany or Ivanka about that, too. Tiny soul - grubbing for money, money, money his while life (while he inherited hundreds of millions); never satisfied unless he could "win" and someone else -also- loses. Tiny in every way, and by any measure (just ask Stormy). It is a waste of pity to pity Trump - he wallows in his own box of mirrors, constantly focused on himself, and needy, needy, needy. What a sad life.
48
No, it’s a symbol of Republican bigotry.
9
The word is LIES not “falsehoods”. Please get that straight.
22
He is the president who cried Wolf.
4
The real issue is that America is so blessed with great leaders in industry, technology, academics and so on, yet they do not participate in running for high office, yet as HL Mencken so rightly predicted “ the White House will be adorned by a downright moron”, so long as the best and the brightest of America rejects the call to duty America will continue to be a failed state.
13
Watching the liar now. Is he on drugs? His breathing is not normal as he parades his tales of those deprived of their loved ones by vicious, alien, illegal immigrants. I don’t think he actually understood the oath of office. So sad.
8
You are right, Mr. Bruni. All I can hear is "I me mine" (thank you, George Harrison/The Beatles). What a pathetic little man. I only wish we could build a wall around HIM. And put Ann Coulter in there with him. They'd both get their wall a la Edgar Allen Poe.
10
He's already blathering endless lies, and has only been speaking for 3 minutes.
6
10 lies in the first minute was all I could take.
2
The wall is a monument to trump's ego and no more.
The only crisis is that of an inept individual pretending to be an American president. The crisis is compounded by those Republican cowards who refuse to stand up against him.
Trump is the village idiot and the Republicans his enabler.
9
Theobese, needy fraud of a president just lost his entire case tonight. His performance in the oval office is enough to lose almost the majority of Republican senators. His goose is cooked. Now we have to impeach this pathetic figure.
5
Also a symbol of his pettiness and wickedness. And a symbol of his deep idiocy! The "greatest country in the world" spending billions. For something which only a fool could believe that it would keep away desperately wretched Mexicans. Maybe a few Americans will notice the enormity of these propositions.
3
At the end of the day the Republican leadership especially McConnell knows that the Wall is a stupid waste of time and money. They don't care about that anymore than they did about foisting off the ignorant, incompetent racist Donald Trump on the American people through corrupt election practices..
No person who has even a shred of respect for the United States can support Trump and these evil Republicans who are destroying our nation to satisfy their own lust for power and money.
Are you listening Mitch? Your day of retribution will come!
13
It’s time to throw this bum out on the street.
He’s a hater. He’s monumentally ignorant. He hates this country.
12
All this is about: Look at ME ME ME ME.....every day another
TV picture of this very mentally ill President.
Frank Bruni: The truth about Trump is that he is mentally ill !!!!
Now no more nonsense about anything else but the truth about
Trump;.that he is unfit to continue to be President of the USA.
Re print Letter to Editors from Harvard Professor of Psychiatry.
Lance M. Dodes MD...This Letter to the Editors of the NYTimes
published 2/13/17....and signed by 33 of Dr. Dodes colleagues
who are members of The American Psychiatric Association will
enlighten you.
It is time to stop speaking of Trump as mentally normal...He is
suffering from a severe psychiatric disorder of narcissism.
Re print the Letter...and then go on TV....and discuss it with
whomever....make it known that Trump must be called unfit
and that Amendment 25 : Section 4 must be used...
6
You are right, Frank, but I wish you would have also parsed the Schumer and Pelosi statements. They were wooden and frozen and extremely unconvincing. All three were frustrating. I found myself saying out loud to my screen, "Third party. Third party. Third party."
4
Go on YouTube and watch Bernie Sanders’ response. It’s fiery and right on the money.
It's a #vanityWall nothing more, and it's vanity can not be satisfied.
1
Trump's other agenda: DISTRACTION
This has been cited repeatedly about his many other attempts to distract the public from the Mueller probe, but also must be raised in this context. The wall and government shutdown is the latest and possibly Trump's most effective method for distracting from both the criminal probes and the gross incompetence of his administration. Consider what the headlines would be saying without this going on. And tragically in this case, it's causing immense human suffering and other bad consequences for the U.S. - just to suit his many selfish and corrupt agendas.
8
Trump's little political stunt to draw support for his pointless wall is an embarrassing reminder of the incompetence in his Administration to come up with genuine solutions to policy disagreements. While this performance might work in reality TV, it certainly doesn't work in real life government world.
4
"Because it’s not really a wall that Trump is after, if indeed it ever was. It’s a victory for victory’s sake."
Truer words have never been spoken.
3
Once in a while, the idea of ignoring trump so as not to play into his distracting tangents is floated by the media as a way NOT to validate the fact that we no longer live in America, we live in the trump show.
Opportunity missed tonight. Of course it would never happen, but imagine if the networks had banded together to deny him yet another self-aggrandizing platform.
I say today what I have said since that imbecile came into office: THIS IS NOT GOVERNMENT. We are rudderless.
7
Is it neediness, or aggrandizement? At heart they are one and the same, I suppose. One has to wonder - without being too dramatic - given the overall impression of this administration's lurching, primitive but thankfully mostly inept power lust, whether Trump's wall hysteria is a subconscious and cheap imitation of the Reichstag Fire pretext gambit?
Weird times: It's hard to take Trump seriously on the surface, yet we must pay attention to these crude adventures and watch for their meta, groundwave effects. And combat their unfortunately too effective fearmongering on far too many anxious citizens.
To that end, I think I may have sussed this out, or part of it: the wallmongering is a handy distraction from the greater fear among most Americans, the dawning but still mostly subconscious realization that their country and economy, including their job prospects, have been stolen blind from them, with the looters aided and abetted by the very people they voted into office over the last four decades. Most of the dupes and willing sheep of the Reagan Restoration (which has been ably assisted by centrist "Democrats") are still in denial. "MAGA!"
The parade of carny barkers - Trump, a natural master of distraction, is just a cruder example of the rotating political genre we've been seeing - keeps hectoring, "Look over here! Not over there! Lookee here!" And the rubes' chorus chants back, "MAGA!"
3
Wrong, Bruni. It's a failure of the DNC Politburo's need to deal with American security and sovereignty--but good try at the old Marcuse thesis--America the great nemesis of the Grand Collective.
1
@Alice's Restaurant You can call names all you want--Trump's greatest talent--but I see no facts from you. When even our own intelligence agencies, past or present, say no wall is needed, and that far greater threats lie elsewhere, you cite the tired, old dog whistles.
2
@Alice's Restaurant Still sittin' on the Group W bench, I see...
Trump is a perfect example of a personality disorder. You cannot reason with such a person nor change their minds; their thought processes are completely rigid. You can see it in action every day when Trump appears on the news.
To impeach is only to further hurt and alienate an already-wounded electorate. Nothing left, America, but to endure until 2020 and (everyone) be sure to keep your voter registrations up to date!
5
Mr.Trump is the smallest, most insecure man I have had the misfortune to read about. Confident men do not constantly brag, they do not denigrate others, they do not ask people to praise them, they do not sulk if they are not Front row center.Confident men do not blame others for their mistakes, they do not look for scapegoats , they do not fire people by tweet.Mr.Trump was a small man as he ran for office, his stature has shrunk.He is a big nuisance but he is a small human being.
12
I suggest the GOP donor class each kick in $50 Million to jump start funding this wall. Once they have raised the $5 Billion, maybe we can get started. Until then, let's just move on to solving real problems for real people.
What do you say Charles and David Koch - got an extra $100 Million to get this started? Come in Ailes - you'll hardly miss the $50 Milion. Here's looking at you Donnie - you claim you're a billionaire, so toss the $50 Million into the pot. So how easy this can be.
4
@GTM
"Come in Ailes.."
If you're referring to Roger Ailes of Fox News, that would be a mite difficult for this man to emerge from Hades, unless Lucifer could provide him a day pass.
Dear Frank,
If you're going to mention this in the context of ego, please include those of Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer. All three are playing the stupid version of "Chicken". In this version, no one wants to flinch.
Another thing you and most of the media don't want to mention is how Congress failed to pass a budget, thereby setting up this scenario. Democrats and Republicans managed to pass criminal justice reform by actually cooperating with each other. With immigration, though, both parties may as well be re-enacting a trench warfare scene from World War I.
This wouldn't be as big a problem for Schumer and company if they weren't already on the record supporting some sort of barrier along our southern border. Schumer even used the words "illegal aliens":
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=schumer+then+and+now+on+illegal+aliens&t=ffsb&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=i91dHmjhxwo
Now, there doesn't need to be a wall along the entire border. But I am more likely to believe the recommendation of the Border Patrol as to their needs along the border than career politicians who believe in sanctuary cities and states.
I missed the speech.
Was EL Presidente his usual brilliant self? Master of oratorical skills?
Did he cut through the fog of lies as usual and offer up crystal clear truth based on facts?
Did he come across with his usual uniting message demonstrating how only he can that he is the President of all Americans?
Did he, like JFK claim "Soy Latino tambien!!!"
I am sure historians will treasure this effort in the same way that Reagan is remembered for his "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall" speech.
1
Two words, "petulant child". And he's going to "hold his breath until he gets what he wants.". Ugh.
10
Trump promised his base a wall. He promised Mexico would pay for the wall. Hasn't happened. Now, the super-macho egotist is having trouble with the obvious truth: there's no wall, and Mexico is not offering to pay for one. What's more, there are women making fun of this situation. Women! Trump cannot stand this.
In just a few minutes, he's going to Speak To The American People. Should be very interesting. Given his reputation - rightly earned - for lying ad nauseam, this should be an interesting show coming from the Oval Office.
The Democrats have secured "equal time" to rebut his remarks, featuring Nancy Pelosi and chuck Schumer. Should be a most interesting evening of television!
And that doesn't even include the Manafort bombshell and the Russian female lawyer bombshell. !!!!!
2
A wall. Is this what Trump wants as his legacy?!? Feeble minded at best. Obama had the ACA ie Obamacare. Granted Obamacare wasn't perfect, but it was SOMETHING. The reality is that Trump doesn't have any ideas. And that, is the real concern: a feeble minded president who is clinging to a wall, hoping someone will catch him. I'm not paying for it. I'll cancel the check to the IRS for the increase in taxes I am sure I am going to get stuck with on this boondoggle.
4
I think I know where the « terrorists entering the US through the Mexican border » story comes from !
It’s one of the plot lines from Sicario 2, the movie !
Fact checkers should look if the movie’s release calendar, including early previews, and the articulation of this presidential argument are related...
It made sense to me at last !
Hypocrite Mitch McConnell:
Senate Democrats took to the floor on Tuesday to pressure Mr. McConnell...McConnell fired back, noting the 2006 legislation. “Maybe the Democratic Party.. are that dead-set on opposing this particular president on any issue, for any reason, just for the sake of opposing him.”
Gee, Mitch, do you know anyone who would do such a thing?
7
Could we just give the spoiled brat the $5 billion wall he wants? We've spent just as much money on much stupider waateful harmhful things in the past, and there's no a priori reason this wall needs to be greatly harmful, if care is taken in its design), other than the $5 billion wasted. But maybe the Dems can omnibus some infrastructure into the wall bill. Furthermore, since the wall is dumb and won't do much, it will function as more rope for Trump and Republicans and other conservatives to hang themselves with, because, ten years after the wall is completed, everyone will see it as a big waste, created by Trump, Republicans, and other conservatives. That's a certain kind of long range(political) planning the Democrats can do here.
I threw up listening to the Vietnam War coward take the name of the close to 59,000 men and women killed in the war. The millions wounded and those that became drug addicts or had their life destroyed forever. Everyone who served haunted for the rest of their lives of what they had seen or done. The Night Terror of being unable to sleep and to those that woke up one day and looked in the mirror and said "Today is the day and it ends here. " The men and women who ended up homeless. This is a man whose father paid a foot doctor to write a note to keep out of whether the war was right or wrong serving his country. I served in the US Marines over 51 years ago and this man makes me sick to my stomach. I wonder when Americans will look at what they have as Commander in Chief and finally say enough. For those that rant on about drugs most come in through ports of entry with other goods and is it not rich for a man to rant on about them when the Vietnam War created so many people addicted to drugs to ease the pain. I laugh at all those that say he is doing what the American people want oh really that is not the same polls I read. If he promised to drown every third person would that be alright after all he promised. I laugh when the talking heads at FOX state how he knows what it is to go without a paycheck. It shows how demented they are. Poor Rush who makes close to $40 million making like he is one of us. A lowlife sits in our house. Jim Trautman
17
Yes, he's brilliant and on top of things. It took him (12 days less than) two full years since his inauguration to discover this is an "emergency". Of course during that time he's been too busy Photoshopping people into the empty seats at his inauguration. It's a tough job.
IMO, we're in more danger from people innocently getting addicted to opioids than from drug trafficking over the southern border.
That "speech" wouldn't get a C- for persuasion in a sixth grade class. What a pathetic country we are to have him in that seat.
6
If it weren't for the power he wields, he'd be pathetic, a sad footnote to American Democracy.
2
So, Mr. Bruni, shall we dismantle the 580 miles of wall that now protects our southern border?
1
Trump is pathetic, & he has managed to bring the Dems down to his level. The wall is unnecessary, sure. But what I object to almost as much as Trump's insistence on it is the Dems insistence on not building it, even if that means sacrificing the Dreamers, refugees, and US government employees. They are also needy in terms of their insistance on, above all, apearing to be tough & uncompromising. Who's more uncompromising? Who cares?
1
And Republican intransigence. (Read more about how 20 Republican senators and 53-54 Republican house members are responsible for the continuing shutdowncan be the start of mending America's partisan divide. Two thirds of the House and Senate, not the President, have the last word on national policy according to executive veto provisions in the US Constitution, Article I, Section 7, Clause 2.
To make the most of this requires that 2020 down ticket Democrats do more than howl at Trump. Democrats must demonstrate to the country that they also are serious about governing:
address Trump's worst in ways that any self-respecting, conscientious office-holder could accept.
rollback Trump actions that hurt our alliances, public lands, energy, health, education, and prosperity.
fashion proven corrections for Trump failures: economic, worker, retiree, tax enforcement, corruption and bribery, pollution, and data gathering.
challenge Republican refusal of proven correctives
@Douglas Johnston The Democrats have already started on this path with the anti-corruption omnibus bill.
And so, Mr. President and extremely successful businessman, what is the ROI on this wall? Surely you must know the answer to that basic question. Will we see an 80% decrease in illegal immigration or 10%? I ask the same question for all those illegal drug shipments.
We haven't seen any ROI on the $1.5 billion earlier allocated to you because you haven't spent it. When do we see the early results on that? As you know, critical business decisions are based on solid projections. So, if as you said during your campaign, government should be run like a business, what do we get for $5.7 billion more?
6
It is not just that Trump lies, rather the fact that lying is what is standard, what is expected of him. I am 71 and do not remember another president like this. Even Nixon, when he did lie about so much during Watergate, had more redeeming features and gave a sense that at least he could read and understand an issue. Not so with our current president. This is as sad as it is dangerous.
This is not to say that Trump may not get an occasional detail or statement correct, but that everything has to be fact checked on this presumption of lying.
13
Our true US border crisis is the destruction of the border between big money interests and our politics. The flow we have to stop is the flow of special interest money in elections. The evidence for this harm is enormous.
Will any columnist grapple with how the money flow threatens our democracy as the corporate wealthy set up laws, fund candidates, and set political norms? One result is Trump as imposter president.
The high wall we have to build is the one the Supreme Court tore down in the Citizens United decision---dismantling limits on big money. Without that barrier, special interest money floods in, and drowns out the voice of the citizen majority.
A strong campaign finance wall would restore the American credo---representation for our taxation. The colonies overthrew the Mad King George. Now we have to free ourselves from Mad King Trump and our domestic colonizers, who expropriate our nation’s resources, and leave us to compete for crumbs.
Build the wall by using public funding for elections and limits on private money, as other democracies do.
With a wall between money and politics, we’ll get more candidates with sense of public duty, not chosen, subsidized and marketed to voters by for-profit big business.
This will free up the lawmakers we stand in line to elect, to work on our true and neglected national emergencies-- climate change, health care, jobs, economic equality, and middle /working class security
7
Completely overseen today because of the hoopla over the angry toddler's upcoming speech was the fact that the Trump administration has downgraded the EU mission in D.C. without even informing Brussels. Remember that Trump loves the Brexit while calling the EU is a foe?
Once more has he destroyed a Obama initiative that allowed the EU diplomats direct access to US official akin to ambassadors, but when downgraded to an "International body", that access will be much harder.
This was first reported by the German Deutsche Welle, and shortly thereafter by the UK Guardian.
Trump's estrangement from reality is so profound that he rather butters up to every strongman in the world while at the same time eager to sever ties with our long-term allies.
He belongs in a closed facility guarded by men in white coats, not in the Oval Office.
19
Did anyone else find Trump’s speech dull as dust? That was the best he could do?
11
Bravo! Frank Bruni, this is one of the best columns you've ever written. This "wall" & the shifting sands surrounding it....is like a mirage on the horizon for a panting, desperate, thirsty man. (Desperate to achieve something & not smart enough to figure out how to do anything else. Desperate to divert attention from the Mueller probe and other administration misdeeds....dealing with the Saudis? Trump/Kushner finances personally benefitting from public office? Unable to be anything but a grifter and a loudmouth bombast.)
Trump can't figure out how to "do policy" or manage being president. This is the only tangible issue he's really got in his back pocket and he wants a monument and a "win". For "his base" and the history books.
He makes Richard Nixon look like a saint. Once we put this wall to rest and get the government open again, how about we all put our efforts into electing some decent people who are responsive to We the People and kick the republican louts to the curb? While we're at it, we can also deliver a message to the democrats that we want real change that doesn't just enrich people who run for public office.
Maybe a new type of politician will help us make sure everyone gets a decent education, decent health care that doesn't deliver people to the poor house, a good job, decent affordable housing, safe streets, a future for our children and a country that remembers we were all immigrants once. And that - immigration - is what made us great.
8
“Now we’re all yoked to it, this crazy, self-affirming monument that’s a barrier only to reason and responsible government.”
5
One of the finest commentaries on Trump I have ever read. Brilliantly observed. D. J. Trump in full psychic undress. Of course this preposterous wall and the confected emergency are only incidentally on Trump's mind. To Trump, being President is all a reality TV show. If the show is to be extended past 2020, he must rate. Playing people for suckers, not believing a word himself of what he says, is what he has been doing for decades. Now that people can't feed their families with the cessation of pay checks, even congenital fools are finally, finally wising up.
8
The crazy thing about this whole debacle is that his claims of thousands of illegal aliens and terrorists streaming through our border is pretty much undermining and disregarding the good work our Border Patrol is doing, day in, day out, with little fanfare and thanks to go with it. But of course no one knows more about border security or appreciates Border Patrol like how Trump does, right?
3
Trump's need for a border wall is directly linked to his psychological makeup-a troubled narcissistic personality and a need to show his departed father finally that he is really strong. The American public must not allow this flawed person to continue to lead the nation down the road to a collapse of a nation.
Trump shows all the signs of personal mental collapse which should not be hard for all to see. The task of congress and the supreme court is to prevent this from spilling over into the management of the country. Trump election was a bad outcome for America-time to take steps to correct this disaster and get back to constitutional norms.
8
I agree, along with more malevolent aspects of his obsession. He appears to be possessed with the notion that dangerous aliens will invade unless he blockades them. He does not care if the government ceases to govern or if people go hungry or if his shut down makes the country more dangerous. His ego is wanting shoring up.
2
I believe the recent insistence on a border wall is related to the surfacing news about Mueller and the Russia investigation. He's attempting to distract distract distract - he always resorts to this kind of behavior.
7
Points well made, but mute to those who can join to make a difference.
If the Republicans in congress could grow a spine or find there conscious for the good of the nation instead of party, maybe we could move forward.
Sorry, I forgot, big tax relief for the wealthy and stacking the Supreme Court certainly overrides any concern for the overall well being of the nation.
Silly me.
7
The elephant in the room during Donald Trump address was racism. It's at the heart of his appeal for a wall. His base knows that. We all know that.
The people clamoring for a wall with Mexico may deny it. But there seems to be no outcry for a wall with Canada -- despite there being more suspects on the terror list apprehended on our northern border.
Yes, Frank. Donald Trump's demand for a wall is a transparent ploy to salvage his ego. But in the process, he is stoking flames of racism and bigotry for his own selfish gain. Let's not forget that.
18
He's never been held accountable to anybody for anything. He's never been told "no". He doesn't understand how government works and has no respect for the governing process nor his role in that process. He is amoral, uncaring and self serving. All that matters to him is him. We deserve better. The country needs quality leadership, because of the chaos, now, more than before. We've had weak, ineffectual presidents before and worked through it. We've never seen anything like this. It will take years to restore America's credibility and place of respect in the world. We may never totally recover. He must go!
18
The relevant statistic is the number of terrorist attacks committed on American soil by individuals entering through the southern border under the current border security. I believe that number is fairly certainly zero.
5
The Wall episode of the trump administration miniseries is most revealing. It encapsulates so much of what has suddenly become apparent is wrong with trump and the people who support him.
trump came to power in questionable circumstances, using distorted information and outright lies to appeal to a disturbingly large segment of the US population who not only believe those lies, but are incapable of accepting any viewpoints which do not mirror their own.
Then, using distorted information and outright lies, trump is angling to waste billions of dollars on a structure which will serve no real purpose, other than to sate his own ego, pander to people who are also in the business of employing disinformation for personal gain, and further pander to the shrinking proportion of the US populace which will now vote for him.
Finally, by means of distorted information and outright lies, trump and his "administration" have largely insulated themselves from criticism from horrified (former) allies and average citizens the world over.
4
The people spoke in 2018 and by almost 10 million votes, the Republicans were crushed. You'd think they'd smell the coffee and abandon the Great Pretender, but no, they keep digging deeper. For those who live in Maine, Colorado, Arizona and North Carolina, keep the pressure on. Either your Republican Senators will come to their senses, or they'll be washed away with record turnout in the landslide of 2020.
5
I was in my father’s little candy store back in the 1950’s when a guy walked in and asked him to cash a check for ten bucks that was written in pencil on a brown paper bag.
My father told him no, he was sorry he couldn’t help him, but advised him to try the big grocery store that was next door … before giving him a small bag of chocolates and sending him on his way.
If my very good father was still in his candy store today and Trump walked in with some promises written on a brown paper bag, his response would be precisely the same.
Ah Pop, I miss you.
5
Re-open the Federal government now per Democrats request, then discuss border security. No wall, but improved border security.
6
Beyond excorating this president - an easy thing to do - lies the fact that many Americans fervently voted for him and still want him to succeed...Succeed at what? Beyond the cynical wealthy, who see him helping them get an even bigger slice of the pie, are many who have lost jobs that once supported families - as globalization took those jobs away.
Somewhat akin to the yellow vests in France - who have not ralllied behind a champion (they just "want the baguette, not the crumbs"), these people want something they once had - dignity and fair pay for their hard work.
What is the road forward for those who have been "left behind" and is there a candidate among the Democrats who can tilt the playing field back toward income equality? If such a one emerges, he/she should be a winner.
4
@Ellen
Make that excoriating - in my previous post.
Just a simple question.
If the border can be secured without a wall, then how have tens of millions of people crossed the border illegally despite the billions of dollars we've already spent on border security?
Another related question.
If Democrats don’t want a wall, then what are they proposing that is different than the ineffective border security measures of the past 30 years?
5
The biggest current route into the USA is through our airports. And the biggest single nationality entering the USA illegally, because they over stay their visas, are Canadians. Canadians. Maybe the Red States can pay for the extension of the wall along the southern border.
The wall is Trump's issue. The Democrats believe in more sophisticated and efficient means of controlling the boarders. The US is already like an armed camp, anyway. Up to a hundred miles inside its boarders, boarder agents can lawfully detain anyone they suspect of having gained illegal entry. People with Canadian plates (and a darker shade of pale skin) are being pulled over and detained in New Hampshire despite having crossed properly only ninety minutes earlier and, presumably, the data base confirms that legal entry. It's abusive and unfriendly.
Is it really Trump's ego that's driving him to ransom the Federal Government for his wall? Or is it his desperation to hold on to his base, especially when he sees Mueller's investigation closing in on him?
13
The sane people of this country recognize this President is only on an ego trip. I betcha he would name a wall the Trump Wall or some such preposterous claim for his glory. I do not understand why he can’t be removed on the grounds of insanity. Even I can recognize he has no sanity. Before this is over, no decent human being will vote for him in another election. He is only making enemies with his manical ego.
16
There isn't enough praise, concrete, or anything to fill the bottomless need of Donald Trump.
20
Trump, so lofty in his aspirations, so selfless in his quest for knowledge, so heroic in his drive for new discoveries, has become our all Too-Heavy Icarus. Wanting to touch the sun, but unable to even, safely, fall out of bed...
10
Fun and amusing in the vein to be expected of this writer. But this issue is larger than the contempt its instigator deserves. It represents the central neurosis of the most fatal stripe to grip this nation since our luminous founders made excuses for slavery. It is a hostile beast at the throat of our identity. I don't care about Bruni's sophisticated teases of this deformity. I do care about being deformed.
6
Why do people build walls around themselves? Trump's entire life is fear based and he has learned to feed off of the fear of others. It is his own personal fear that he refuses to face turned outwards against the world. The anger and fear he projects in his face is a tantrum of which he can not let go.
The real question is why so many are attracted by this anger and fear and mistake it for strength. A wall built within a personality keeps others out, but also is meant to protect the person within. We are to a large extent a fear based society and Trump is a perfect expression of that Trump chose to attack president Obama because he expressed everything that Trump is not, open, caring, willing to admit mistakes. The fear based personality or society will not tolerate what it can never be, Loving.
14
Pass an amnesty modeled on the one President Reagan signed into law in 1986. The '86 law is not reviled all these years later. Most people in fact have no opinion on it, or a partisan opinion on it, of those who do have an opinion on the law, who cares because it is law. Turn ICE into a bi-national (or however-many-national) organization to better enable cooperation and addressing the humanitarian crisis. More social services. Say the wall is going "modern."
1
Sooo, pass a bill that sets out $6 b for a "wall-start' that only happens when a) he releases his tax returns to the House; and b) stipulates he appear under oath at House sessions to investigate him; with the proviso that he pays the entire amount privately and promptly, the instant he doesn't appear to testify -- and his property can be seized if he doesn't.
13
Love it!
Frank, the US has every right to protect its borders, not just for the citizens of the US but for the migrants as well. The treks that these souls are taking to come to America are putting women and children at great risk. Many of the women are violently attacked or raped during the journey to the border, and their children's lives are obviously in danger. It's disingenuous to ignore this.
We have a healthcare system in the States that quite frankly isn't working as well as it should be for the citizens who are already here. Many in the US struggle to afford healthcare, while immigrants who come here illegally receive healthcare for free once they cross the border. Keep in mind, it's free for them, but you and I pay for their services. Obviously, this drives up our costs, and I personally cannot afford much more! I wish we could accommodate all of the people south of our border, but that's not realistic. The border wall has become a necessary evil: Build the wall.
5
@mark Our country was built by immigrants. A wall will not stop people. A wall will only encourage people more to come the U tied States.
1
@Mark
If you "can't afford much more" Mark - then you certainly can't afford this wall. Every dollar of that $6b cost would be better spent on healthcare, or legal aid, or electoral reform, or bridge repair, or - real border security.
Because "the wall" isn't just a build budget Mark. Think olf legal issues re land acquisition, the staffing it, patrolling it, maintaining it - all more mega-cost that will go on for years and years ... at least until some smarter Govt does the homework and discovers (wow!) it's been a monumental waste of time - and money.
Instead of analyzing the obvious defects in Mr. Trump's character for about the 300th time, maybe you could give him a few hints on how to negotiate with the Democrats in Congress. That would be constructive criticism and might have a tiny, tiny chance of changing his behavior. Very tiny. David Brooks wrote a constructive column recently advocating that the Democrats give Mr. Trump some funding for his wall in exchange for passing DACA. Once upon a time politicians knew how to do such horse trading. Such negotiating is a good thing. It is how a bit of progress is made in this world. Try a column like that. It describes how people should act. All this ranting--pro- and anti-Trump is not how people should act.
2
@Gordon Wiggerhaus Just asking, sir. . .where was negotiation when it came to: Merrick Garland; the many attempts to destroy the ACA; the tax cut; the decisions to tear up the Iran and climate treaties; the reversal of environmental regulations. . .have I cited enough examples? And, BTW, the Democrats thought they had a deal about a year ago (?) on DACA, but the WH scotched it. So where has the current administration shown that it even understands the concept of horse trading, let alone demonstrated that it may be trusted to live up to it?
3
@Larry Zuckerman
I'm half a world away and even I know that the Democrats did negotiate -- a year ago re DACA, and now, just TWO WEEKS AGO . In fact, thought they had a deal when the Republican Senate actually PASSED legislation as agreed to. Then Trump had a twitter-fit and Mitch McConnell reneged on the deal.
When the other side says no-go, then that's it. Non negotiable. After that it's either extortion, or just no-go.
Mr Bruni's assessment is comprehensive and correct. The issue is that Trump is a mass of nothingness, with Tweets and messages from sycophants swirling around it, like the Hawking's radiation emanating from a Black Hole's event horizon.
6
The Border Wall brouhaha is a distraction. The fact that he stayed in the White House or close by through New Year's tells me something else is going on.
Mueller is closing in, and he is grasping at straws.
When was the last time Trump gave up golf?
When was the last time Trump did not act on impulse?
13
How about we build steel slats when he releases his tax return?
3
As usual, he's done the most masterful con job of all while we're all looking. He's distracted us with chaos. Pasted over one extreme immorality with another. Put the country in jeopardy of a massive trade war. And much, much more. Just to achieve his desired outcome: misdirection that keeps us from finding out or focusing on the hidden truths of his taxes, Mueller's investigation, his criminal associates (which he may have been a co-conspirator with), etc. We're not looking there right now, are we?
Sadly, as you said, we're all yoked to it. From before the election I knew he wasn't my guy and wouldn't be 'my president' for that very reason. He lacks all judgement, all morals, and any compassion for people and instead only cares about himself and how he looks (which isn't good) at all cost... ALL COST.
Like most things Trump, this won't end well no matter which way it goes from here.
One things for sure though: millions of us are wasting precious years of our lives, never to be recovered, by having to day-in and day-out see what atrocities to people and the environment are being inflicted upon all of us, upon humanity.
17
"All presidents want to rack up triumphs that make them look and feel large. But none in my lifetime has spun so many fictions in the service of that. None has been so naked in his hunger for that heft.”
That’s because the others, along the way, display concrete, positive abilities that they can share with the country. Mr. Trump’s incumbency, in contrast, is a void. Now I don’t believe Mr. Trump is entirely bereft of such potential. Rather, I suspect that (a) his core sense of himself is that he is fundamentally a loser; (b) he hates himself (deep down) and others for that reason; and (c) he continually lies and acts as he does so as to compensate for that tragic self-construction. He’s an interesting character. Pathetic and dangerous, but interesting.
3
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't "ego need" invariably translate in to "ego fear"? Looks more like this wall is a response to deep, genuine fear than any sort of useful thing. It's as superficial as he is. As though there's no other way of getting in to the US but the Mexican border!
3
I’m not into psychoanalyzing Trump’s advocacy of the wall. Whatever Freud might say, the wall is too expensive and serves no constructive purpose. If you prefer to analyze what it says about Trump’s ego have fun wasting your time. Analyzing what Trump may be thinking assumes that he is actually capable of thinking.
4
@michjas Well, after all, the article is about Trump's "neediness". Just seemed a natural extension. I could not possibly care less about Trump's ego, or other diseases, more the fact that America grinds to a halt when that ego is in play.
2
I write this prior to his network speech.
I can only hope the free press has successfully instilled a cynical mindset into most viewers, as the misinformation that will be spewed by Trump will be mind-numbing, yet persuasive.
5 billion dollars spent on infrastructure would be so much better spent.
1
You lost me, Frank, at paragraph three. The networks did have a choice whether or not to air his speech tonight; they had no problem denying President Obama in 2014 -- maintaining that it was "too political" -- on the very same subject.
This is the most blatant political stunt in terms of his ability to tell the truth and we are all supposed to spend the next few hours fact finding his lies?
The MSM is owned by corporate America. It is no more trustworthy than Trump.
6
There are so many reasons to criticize Trump, so many lies, so many ill-advised policies. But I have a pet peeve. Focus on what counts, not the trivia. The statute of limitations has run on counting the number who attended Trump’s inauguration. Who.cares?
3
I wouldn't watch this idiot tonight even if you threatened to waterboard me. Of course Trump does approve of this.
What a tough guy! This guy will go down in history as the worst president in US history. I'm begging the Republicans to grow a spine and get this dangerous clown out of Washington.
8
It is plausible that Trump's intransigence on the border wall now is due to his ego. Many things are.
But isn't it at least equally plausible that he's in a panic to keep from losing the core of his core, the wall fanatics, as he sees his fringe support falling away and his problems closing in? It's not that his core can save him anyway, even in an election; but he knows that the moment it deserts him his case is closed.
Trump's threat to keep the government shutdown going for months or years sounds like his usual hyperbole in the run-up to cutting a deal. But it could be the genuine hysteria of a demagogue retreating into a bunker from which there's no foreseeable exit.
3
We are exposed to a fool. It is inconceivable to me that a dangerous, ill equipped man is not stopped. Instead, he continues to lie, bully and create havoc for the entire world to witness. When is enough, enough?
8
@Hazel: Trump's enablers want a provocation so egregious that God will intervene.
1
I think it has to do with his belief that he actually does have construction experience and thinks he can guide the wall
project in a way that feels like home. Less need for wiggling, lying, manipulating, exaggerating. That is so benefit
of the doubt. It's just, we know, anything to hold his base.
You think? Major duh. Now what, smart pundits, do we do about it?
It’s like pointing out that the person breaking into your house and steeling your tv “is all about” taking something that isn’t his. But he has a gun and your hands are all but tied.
I’m not saying I know how to handle DT- that’s above my pay grade- but I know incessantly pointing out what an unattractive, misguided ego maniac odd ball he is won’t help.
2
Bill Clinton started the Wall in 1994. Since that time both Democrats and Rublicans have voted in favor of further expanding some form of a Wall. Nearly 90% of border patrol agents (look it up) insist that a Wall in strategic places is critical to patrolling the border.
Hillary Clinton voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which President George W. Bush. It authorized about 700 miles of fencing along certain stretches of land between the border of the United States and Mexico.
Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer voted for it too.
This is what Hillary Clinton said about it on a campaign stop on Nov. 9, 2015: "I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in..." (look it up).
You don't have to like Trump. You are free to despise him. Personally, I can't stand the man. But he is trying to get things he promised done, things that voters want.
That is all there is to any of it.
75
@Bill. There the presumptuous fool flounders, three million votes short of any real mandate from living people.
198
@Bill
He promised a Mexico-paid wall.
That is different than US taxpayers paying and US workers going broke for Trump's Wall.
374
@Bill, you yourself write that border patrol agents want "a Wall in strategic places," not a solid wall along the entire border. The Secure Fence Act (not Secure Wall Act) "authorized about 700 miles of fencing along certain stretches" of a 1,954-mile border.
The U.S. needs logical, informed analysis of the Mexican border to decide what barriers are needed where, not only "a wall". No border wall in history, from the Great Wall of China to the Berlin Wall, has been totally secure.
379
Has he ended.the “American Carnage” yet?
1
"As if manhood could ever be associated with him.” You have to hand it to Ms. Pelosi, she has mastered the art of communication.
9
Trump must have the most massive inferiority complex ever contained in a human package and only equaled by his massive insecurity. He thinks if people can't see big gaudy symbols of his power he might be confused for a regular common variety millionaire. If one must walk around with their resume stapled to their lapel to attain a little respect, they don't believe they can get it in any other fashion - and don't deserve it.
3
Since he rode the escalator down in the summer of 2015 to announce he was running, I cannot believe that Donald has managed to stay in the game. He is so staggering inept and corrupt, I was never sure which shoe would drop first.
And there is the pathology of the constant lying. At some point, perhaps even the base will realize that the boy is crying wolf.
Here’s hoping that the wall shutdown, brought to America by Donald, as part of what can only be described as a really big show, is the proverbial bridge too far.
And yes, Nancy is correct. No one will ever associated manhood with Donald. The soundtrack to his life must surely be the Village People’s Macho Man: Macho, Macho man, I got to be a macho man.... you know, if you have to sing it, it isn’t true.
13
The U.S. has spent billions of dollars on “border security” over the past 30 years, while leaving most of the border with no physical barrier.
The result? Tens of millions of people have simply walked across the border into the U.S. during that time.
That’s what happens when there is no physical barrier. That’s what Democrats and Koch Brother Republicans want to continue forever.
It’s time to build a wall/fence across the border.
4
@John - From the comments I have read yours is the exception. Yes I agree it is time to build a wall at the southern US border. A fence worked at the Hungary/Serbia border thus from my perspective that the wall/fence will not deter illegal migrants from crossing does not hold merit. But why stop with a wall? What really should be done is to revisit the document that incentives illegal migration worldwide - the 1951 Refugee Convention. The statistics are telling, Italy for 2017 asylum claims approved 8.4 percent, I have read that less than 10 percent of Central Americans have their claims approved in the US. Therefore more than 90 percent are bogus claims, but in the meantime the claimants get "in". Once in, they are very difficult to out. And that is the problem with the 1951 Refugee Convention. And one other reason I would like to see the wall/fence built is it will limit the number of those who realize their US asylum claims are likely not to be successful from heading up north to the US/Canada border for another attempt at the asylum system. We have enough here already.
@John: Libertarians don't believe in any borders at all.
@S Sm: Spouse abuse and gang abuse are beyond the scope of traditional asylum from government abuse of citizens.
1
Give T his wall in exchange for a constitutional amendment prohibiting the cessation of any government functions for lack of funding. We can always remove it later. Sure it's a waste of money, but we can always make more money. This shutdown negotiating tactic is immoral, undemocratic, inefficient, stupid and just plain stupid. In 2020 we will complete the negotiations by negotiating the GOP out of power.
Oops! The last line of the first paragraph pretty much says it all. “It’s proof of his potency.
That he lies so much has not been surprising for a while. The discount on what he says probably stands at 85%-90%.
What is surprising is that so few are willing to take a stand against him and so many believe him. How can mike pence look at himself in the mirror after sticking up for trump’s assertion that his predecessors told him they are in favor of his wall? He has the appearance of a bowling pin and probably half the intelligence. He is a beneficiary of whatever elected trump and he is equally tainted.
The real shame of it all is furloughed and otherwise unpaid government workers who are suffering. Getting the government back in business is far more important than the wall. If these keeps up, the wall won’t be needed. We won’t have anything left to protect.
Shelley may have said it best:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
8
@Steve Ell: Trump appeals to people who want to believe that even the whole universe can be wished into reality.
1
The liberal echo chamber continues its rant against a very reasonable proposal to enhance the nations security on our Southern border.
The liberal mantra reveals the the true desire for no barriers at all to illegal aliens invading America at their leisure.
Most rational folks understand that nations have borders, borders require security, and walls may be one security measure implemented. We already use walls over substantial lengths of the Southern border, perhaps those walls are racist ... wait they were built during Democrat administrations, so those walls aren’t racist - only walls built during Republican administrations are racist.
1
@James Wilson
Nope. I'm liberal, and entirely against illegals. And I live down near the border. But the wall would do nothing but waste money. Not a thing. We already have fencing that is correctly set for the territory. But just like the wall - it's easily bypassed.
A ladder, a rope - and you're over it.
A tunnel (and smugglers have made tunnels that they can drive through), and you are under it.
Airplanes, using the normal border and hiding in a trunk, boats and swimming, and you are around it.
Nations have borders, borders need security - and we have that security. To want to build some ego monument is a waste of money, and no, we don't have his 25 billion (an estimate on the low side - 5 billion is only a down payment) to waste.
20
@Details - The problem I have with your rational is that a wall/fence has worked in other countries to deter illegal immigration, Hungary and Israel.
@Details
Your hatred of "illegals" imploes no sympathy for extraordinarily suffering and endangered people caught in the painfully extended series of legal steps for immigration. That cold heart toward suffering suggests to me you are an ill liberal or plain illiberal. I know, California couldn't last a day if all Mexican nationals disappeared
No food gets prepared, served, even grown. No neighborhood lawn gets redone, or houses or autos economically built, or most churches filled, or local and state taxes collected? Oops. Liberals care about others' pains. Be a liberal liberal. It will liberate you.
The last line of the first paragraph pretty much says it all. “It’s a sign of his potency.”
Dear Mr Bruni, I know you have a duty to report facts, but I must remind you: every time you mention He Who Shall Not Be Named, you are needlessly prolonging the misery.
1
Thanks for the amateur psychology. It must drive the libs crazy that what they say doesn't bother him. So how does it feel to be irrelevant?
1
@Bryan au contraire, by all accounts, Donald is deeply angry and humiliated that he is shunned by so many people who are liberals. LeBron James is a great example. Donald went on a tirade about him but James didn’t fire back, he just said that he wouldn’t meet with Donald. That doesn’t strike me as being driven crazy.
5
@Njlatelifemom Well, with a statistically sound sample like that, how could I disagree?
An excellent job of summarizing what we all know about this man and his dishonesty without seeming to be repetitive with the hundreds of news reports that tell us the same thing. It's a shame that your skills as a writer are focused on such a waste of time delegitimizing this illegitimate president.
2
I am expecting a laughter inducing harangue on he order of the "successful' speech to the UN.
4
I visit DC 3 or 4 times a year and usually visit the National Portrait Gallery. I would suggest that they place a concrete wall in front of trumps portrait as it will be his legacy, at least in his big brain.
6
NYT columnists substitute ad-hominem attacks for reasoned interpretation and analysis. The transformation of the NYT into a high-end version of the dailykos is complete.
2
@Mannyv: Nonsense. All the comments here about Trump are observations derived from his behavior.
4
If we were really and truly concerned about the vulnerability of our borders to terrorists, we'd be talking about our northern borders, not just our southern ones. The U.S. borders with Canada (Alaska + the continental U.S.) total 5,525 miles. The border with Mexico totals 1,933 miles.
But Mexico is poor and its people are brown, and even though they do essential work that Americans won't do, we must demonize them and characterize them as criminals and drug dealers. The truth is, they don't threaten our way of life, they maintain it by keeping the cost of food artificially low and providing essential services. The terrorist narrative is simply dishonest fear mongering by the xenophobes in the Republican Party.
Meanwhile, if terrorists really wanted to infiltrate our borders other than flying in, canoeing in from Canada would likely be much easier than coming in from Mexico.
6
A wall? A wall over 30 feet high? A wall where I, my sister, and our children used to wander back and forth between and in two countries? Are people with Spanish and Native American DNA now our enemies? How sick is our country....
9
@Carole
Yes. It is a wall of xenophobia.
2
Pass a bill in the House that provides $6bn, which is more that he asked for. Include in the bill a clear path to citizenship for Dreamers and requirement that Congress, the Supreme Court, and the President must immediately release the last 5 years of tax returns.
Then watch Trump and McConnell squirm and sweat bullets. Break out the popcorn.
8
A small point Mr Bruni. When Trump uses the pronoun "we" he is using it in the royal sense, thus it should be capitalised "We" to be used as follows. "We have spoken to Our people and We are not amused" said King Donald.
7
Building a wall will require the taking of privately held land by Federal Eminent Domain. That should lay well in Texas. I do not understand why the Dems will not advance that argument.
There are no engineering studies. No site work. Nothing.
Your local Zoning Bpard would throw trump out if he wanted to build a garden wall on this basis.
10
No! The wall is s symbol of his bigotry and ignorance. It is jaw dropping how stupid and callous this man can be. He actually tells the public he can identify with those struggling to make sure they stay solvent during his tantrum. That is INSANE! He has no clue! He has found another way to kick the knees out of this economy. But hey! The republicans in congress are totally behind him! They support him to the point where Mcconnell and senate republicans have abdicated their responsibility to write, debate and vote on bills. This is a direct disavowal of the fundamental operation of our elected government.
7
Trump's ego is so obviously fragile because the image he attempts to project is based on lies and myths---including his massive, self-earned "wealth".
I believe Trump's collapse, legal, financial and otherwise, is inevitable. The fascinating question to me is whether his followers will ever be able to contend with the reality staring them in the face. I honestly have my doubts.
5
We should build it surrounding him only — he's a menace to our country and the world. Unfit for office.
6
It is altogether possible Trump will dig a deeper hole for himself by trying to drum up support for his wall or rationale for the shutdown. Likely his teleprompter speech will embolden Stephen Miller and placate Ann Coulter. His base he heard all of this before in one forum or another.
Trump is campaigning for 2020 a raw political contest to rack up a win. To protect the public the networks should demand a copy of the speech in advance making fact checking much easier. Getting the facts straight proves a challenge for Trump regardless of audience or subject matter.
4
$5.6 billion, only a portion of which is supposedly allocated to "wall funding" is not going to build much of it. Which makes the posturing of the Democrats ridiculous in this impasse as well as it meaning that Trump will have really kept a campaign promise. At least you could present the facts/landscape accurately Frank. Both sides are behaving like children.
@CHM Um...Ya! I beg to differ. Refusing to cave to a totally fabricated “threat” is miles from childish in my book! The dems are wisely refusing to negotiate on a mountain of bigoted, paranoid lies spewed by the WH.
3
It’s one thing to have a presidential ego. You can’t reach the presidency without that. Even dear Jimmy Carter had an ego. Let’s get honest here, however. Trump is mentally ill.
6
Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama... What do they have in common? Ten to twenty years ago, they all sounded like Trump does today. Trump’s critics today are hypocrites.
2
Can someone who's good at Photoshop just dummy up some combination of a wall and a desert to show to Trump so he'll pipe down and move on to his next attempted distraction from the Mueller investigation?
3
Terrorits hold people hostage to extort from others the achievement of their own political agenda. The president is now holding government hostage to his political agenda.
The United States does not negotiate with terrorists.
4
Enough already about Trump's neediness. What's far, far worse and demands a truthful explanation, Mr. Bruni, is our and your neediness for Trump!
This enabling and destructive behavior deserves far, far more from you and your media colleagues than always being ignored, misunderstood and/or avoided. Where's the intervention?
Speak truth to power, Sir, so that our democracy can be reclaimed sooner rather than later.
Thanks in advance.
The networks should air the speech on a delay, enabling a synchronous fact check crawl at the bottom of the screen.
6
The only wall Trump should be worried about is the wall of his future jail cell.
4
Our southern border is in crisis
But not from migrants or from ISIS
It’s Donald Trump alone
The greatest pain that’s known
In truth I’d rather have arthritis
3
In an expected cynical reveal, and insult to injury, he's soliciting 2020 campaign donations like the national emergency is nothing other than a telethon. Will there be an 800 number to call in our pledge? As long as the crowd is gathered, why not?
Like little Anthony from the Twilight Zone, this must be 'a real good thing,' or it would have ended by now.
2
I hope that the networks go with a real-time fact checking crawl. As he tell the same lies over and over, most of the fact checking can be pre-made. Anything leftover can be put in the post-speech wrap-up. To be fair, the networks must also fact-check the Democrat rebuttal.
2
More terror suspects at airports. By a long shot.
Clearly we need a roof, not a wall.
5
@Paladin
Have ladder, will travel.
2
@Paladin Yes, that's it...we don't need a wall, we need a dome over the entire country.
I'll be watching anything but DJT.
5
What happens when there is an assault on US citizens from individuals who have entered the US illegal through Mexico, then does the rational for the wall suddenly change? Do we take the liberal view and wait and see or perhaps take the prudent approach and build the wall?
Do we really need another 9/11 level event Mr Bruni before we do something?
1
We obviously need a compromise, a real negotiation. Trump in his infancy doesn't really know how to negotiate. He threatens, bullies, cheats, and takes people to court since any compromise is a threat -- as Mr. Bruni says -- to his manhood.
So it is up to the Democrats. They need to get politically clever for this fix. There is already a sort of compromise, $1.6B for border security. So give Trump something that his frail ego can call a wall. There is talk of Trump wanting to building some sort of barrier, a "wall" that extends 240 miles in addition to existing walls. So give him a "rugged personnel barrier wall" of a construction like some of the effective walls already existing on the border in California. Don't replace existing walls, just 240 miles.
Then Chuck and Nancy need to work on a positive statement that "they have rolled over and agreed to construction of a wall." And then SHUT UP with no face saving embellishment. Democrats don't need to justify themselves on this issue. That wall won't actually cost $5B, that would be $20M per mile.
That way Trump's ego is satisfied and Democrats can get on with immigration reform, and impeachment.
1
Expecting reasonable behavior from an unreasonable person is an unrealistic proposition. Trump isn't going to quit lying, he isn't going to start acting consistently, and he isn't going to grow up. We can gripe about it all we want, but as long as he's president, it won't change. We can write 10 million posts asking why he won't grow up and act right, but it won't change him a bit. Reason is opaque to an unreasonable person.
He won't change after he leaves the presidency either, but who cares?
5
I think most of us have come to realize that Trump has a serious case of "I" trouble. That has in fact become somewhat unusual. Americans have developed a strange aversion to "I", preferring to substitute "myself" for it.
(Along those lines, I once wrote an article entitled "The Egg and Myself.")
I think we must be vigilant, however. If Trump should ever descend to the imperial "we", it may be time to man the barricades.
All that aside, I think the network poobahs really should reconsider the "crawl of words" along the bottom of the screen, for lack of a better description; (Is there one?)
Here's the thing. Responding to ALL of Trump's lies would cover the TV screen with "crawlers" right up to his frontal comb-over. Given that limitation, is it really necessary - or even productive - to respond to the hundreds of little lies he throws out just because his lips are moving?
I don't think so. I think Trump's lies are bundled together like Japanese rice balls. The networks should "crawl in Trump's manner. Above all, avoid expert opinion, scientific studies and detail of any kind! For instance:
Trump: "Opioids are pouring across the border!"
Crawl: "No. They're coming into our seaports in huge crates! Everyone knows that!"
Trump: "We're being invaded from our southern border!"
Crawl: "No. The invaders don't have a Navy, an Air Force or an Army. A chicken wire fence would stop them, if they existed Everybody knows that!"
And so on. It's easy. Meet dumb with dumb.
2
If anything Trump is and will be a textbook case of what childhood emotional and mental damage does to a person. If he were not in a position to cause so much damage and inflict so much pain on the world, he is truly a very sad and pathetic figure being used by the GOP. Yes, Mr. Bruni, there is not amount of love or admiration that will ever be enough to fill the gaping whole in this man's soul. Now, his followers, that is another story. Intellectual laziness as critical thinking takes effort or maybe just plain old racist, xenophobic, misogynistic stupidity.
4
“Magic mirror on the Wall, who’s the fairest of them all...?” King Trumpkin, that’s who!
2
The Wall has nothing to do with border security as most thinking Americans know. The facts speak volumes, including recent polls. And, of course, it has nothing to do with fulfilling promises to his base. He cares not one wit for his supporters. They are merely pawns on his gilded chess board. Ironically, these very followers, lemmings to be more accurate, are the last ones to see through his warped egoism and narcissism. Every utterance from Trump's mouth is a lie. Again, thinking Americans know that, as well as the GOP Senate, Trump's aides, even his equally unethical Cabinet, including the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Trump MUST build a monument to himself, and the Wall it must be. He will never be remembered in the Capital as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR are. His face will never be carved on Rushmore. The thought is so absurd it is laughable. His Monument is an insult to that very sacred Viet Nam War Memorial, a wall of honor. He must be a 21st Century Pharaoh with his Pyramid, to be memorialized and hopefully politically buried in. It is all he has, this delusion, to prove to himself and yet another delusion...that he is a man.
9
@Kathy Lollock I enjoyed your post. Thanks
1
Another measure of Trump's neediness is his eager consorting with brutal tyrants feared by their helpless populations and who act with impunity and contempt of legal restraint or democratic accountability. Those are the big boys -- Putin, Erdogan, President for Life Xi, Orban, Duterte, even Little Rocket Man who is Trump's Valentine this year.
So far Trump has been denied membership in The Club of Murderous Tyrants only because he hasn't figured out a way to suspend the Constitution while he shoots someone on Fifth Avenue who makes him feel small.
But it's not just neediness but a form of self-loathing that Trump wallows in, a compulsion to be the hero, which exceeds his meager and twisted empathy and thus the resort to black-hearted villainy to compensate.
But this is all gilding the lily as hidden in plain sight is what cripples Trump most: stupidity that's electrified by a mean streak and willful ignorance of facts and consequences.
To paraphrase Carville: It's the Stupidity, Stupid.
8
Trump is a sad, tragic figure in American history. Maybe he and Mark Burnett can put a TV show together about it and make millions. Title: How I conned enough Americans and became Prez (sort of). Lots of suckers out there would eat it up.
1
Yes, he is a narcissistic, needy liar whose ego craves adoration because there is no soul inside to draw sustenance from. But there is something symbolic about this wall thing that he shares with his cult followers.
Hitler saw the Jews as parasites, or a virus that would invade the body politic of Germans. It served as a vehicle for Hitler and his followers to expel and project unacceptable parts of themselves on to external others, Jews, so they could hate "them" rather than hate aspects of themselves.
Trump is doing the same thing. Like Hitler, he is a germaphobe, with a need to erect a barrier to keep him from being infected. His fantasies about Mexicans, now Central Americans, involve projections beyond the "barrier" of oneself of the worst aspects of human nature, seeing "them" as infected beings who will infect us with the evil, dirty, unacceptable parts ultimately of ourselves . The wall will keep away a return of the repressed, that which we psychically expel and project on to others.
No, Trump is not a Hitler (though he admired Hitler's ability to manipulate a crowd). But the mechanisms involving "good me" and "bad you" are the same. The wall is a desperate attempt to keep the bad within us outside, rather than recognizing and dealing with the naughty parts of "our" nature. The side effect is that "they" are no longer seen as human.
This he shares with his followers, justifying viciousness towards those no longer seen as fellow human beings.
4
Part the wall is Trump's ego. The other part of it is naked, unadulterated racism. Trump HATES brown people with a breath-taking mania. From the moment he said, "They're rapists!" he declared war on anyone and everyone from Central and South America.
And he's not backing down. His speech tonight will be his "day which will live in infamy" call-to-arms. He thinks he's going to inspire millions of white Americans to join him in his war to stop "the browning of America." That's the depth of his insanity, his ego, and his cruelty.
I will listen to his speech tonight, and it will take every ounce of willpower I have not to throw heavy objects at the TV screen. Prepare to be deluged by lies on an EPIC scale.
#NotMyPresident #RESIST #ImpeachTrumpNOW
2
@Jack Connolly
Agree. I give you credit for listening to him lie, babble, lie, babble, and lie some more. I cannot. I'll read about it tomorrow.
1
How many Pinnochio’s will Trump earn tonight? Listen for key words; Mexicans, ISIS, Democrats, danger!
Translation; brown people, black people, non-white people danger!
I’d say Trump has absorbed Mein Kampf pretty well but i doubt he reads much
4
To be honest he is like a spoiled two year, that is holding their breath, or lying on the floor in a tantrum, because they do not get what they want.
Trump was handed everything in his life. What was not handed to him he committed fraud to obtain. He used his properties as illegal tax shelters. His father lied to keep him out of Vietnam. He, and his family, milked the tax system to avoid paying taxes. While president, he is still running his business, and getting favors from it.
He is more than a liar, he is a thief and a criminal. He is not cleaning up the so called "swamp", he is pouring raw sewage into it.
His party looks the other way, because, like Trump, being in power, and their egos, rise above the needs of this country. Surely, if Clinton got elected, they would be raking her across the coals. These hypocrites would be saying far worse things than the press, or Democrats, are saying about Trump.
Yet, Clinton, despite some of her faults, would not be acting like spoiled brat, flip flopping by the hour, using Twitter to send out one lie after another, wanting to build a useless wall or shutting down the government committing what amounts to extortion.
Finally, Trump uses "we" on purpose. Think how Queen Elizabeth II uses "we", and you get the idea. That is, Trump thinks he is an absolute monarch. And if eh could, he would dissolve Congress, and the courts, then rule by decree. So, this is more than his ego.
7
@Nick Metrowsky The cancerous growth of the second branch, the presidency, once seemed not to be mortal.
This is a republic, not a monarchy. We do not delegate law-making powers to any one person. We need the Senate, the senior house, to lead again and to join the project to legislate Trump's presidency back into the constitutional bounds set forth in Article 2, not to make laws but "to see that the [existing] laws are faithfully executed." Either that, or to legislate this kind of presidency out of existence entirely.
About Trump's wall and the crisis on the southern border:
-- The wall is another Trump straw man set up to give the president something to blather about, stoke his base, rile the opposition, and dominate the news. Now that we know his campaign created "The Wall" as a mnemonic for him, what else can it be?
-- As a straw man, the wall is diverting significant attention from the many other things happening in Trump World to eliminate regulations and programs that undergird our nation's well-being.
--Separating families, caging children, and tear gassing people is abominable, but Trump does nothing to stop these acts. How can they not violate human rights? How can they not be criminal?
--From the photos I keep seeing, it is obvious that the southern border already has many miles of wall in place. Meanwhile, our northern border has no wall nor any hint of building a wall. Yet, that's where the 9-11 attackers crossed from Canada into New York.
Trump's wall is a travesty, an expensive travesty.
2
As usual the hypocrisy with which the USA views foreign threats usually created by themselves ( i.e. the refugees ). Where does
Trump think the names of cities like San Francisco, Santa Fe, Albuquerque ,etc etc or names like Arizona, California, New Mexico etc come from, if not from Spanish and Mexican settlers evicted by invasions of refugees coming from Europe, and east US, for a better life. The original Americans are those still in ghettoes with limited access to their old territories.
1
This speech will need fact-checking in real time, Mystery Science 3000 style, featuring commentary by Snoop Dog, Willie Nelson and Tommy Chong.
4
The best argument that Trump could make in favor of his wall comes from Colonel Nathan Jessup in "A Few Good Men:"
"We live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns . . . My existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall."
Of course Democrats could counter by pointing out that Jack Nicholson himself, who played Col. Jessup, doesn't think much of Trump or his wall. But they would agree that Trump's existence is grotesque and incomprehensible.
2
As usual, Frank Bruni hits the nail on the head. I thought one of the most pathetic descriptions in the Harvey Weinstein story was the scene attributed (Wash Post is where I think I read it) by Chelsea Skidmore of Weinstein's needy and abusive begging repetition "Can you help me out?" Is that not exactly what Trump is doing now over the wall now (albeit verbalized differently).
2
Fact checkers can be prepared to point out our current president's lies immediately because the lies will all be ones he has told before. Yes, a crawl across the bottom of the screen would be good and perhaps a buzzer that sounds each time a lie is told. Also, a tally of the number of lies in an upper corner of the screen. In fact, maybe with special effects the TV graphics people can show his nose getting longer with each lie.
4
What we are observing is nothing short of "Metamorphosis". Shutting himself off from reality behind a barricade of walls, flailing his limbs like Gregor Samsa, in Franz Kafka's novel, the President, a real-estate salesman - without Gregor's analytical mind - is almost parodying the travelling salesman in Kafka's novel, parading around in weird moods.
Somewhere in the novel, Gregor says, " I'm in a fix, but I'll work myself out of it again." We'll see what happens in prime time.
Trump's personal metamorphosis happened the day he entered the White House, turning it into "Animal Farm, 2017"- (recently published)!
Let's see what comes of his pathetic efforts tonight trying to communicate with another world he can barely understand.
1
The networks should record trump's speech, edit out the lies and then play what's left. It could probably be done during a commercial break.
3
He may have more than a ‘resounding defeat ‘ hanging over him. Trump may have to perform or take the chance of being first on some Russians hit list. Plus, now he has the Southern District of NY to deal with when he leaves office for campaign finance violations, etc. etc. You could even make a credible argument for him to do whatever it takes to keep his base solidly behind him, if you cared nothing about ethics or morals. Trump knows his day of reckoning will come, which is much more credible than hordes of criminals coming to our Southern border.
1
The concern that someone on the order of Donald Trump might actually be seated in the Oval Office is pretty much the reason why I, many years back, once voiced the opinion that anyone desperate enough to want to be president so badly should be automatically disqualified as too mentally deranged to hold the office. My suggestion then was that both parties should offer up not one but two or three (wo)men who in the parties' judgment would excel in the position. Then, those candidates would be tasked with making the case why any of the others in the pool would be a better choice than themselves, with the person making the best case why they should NOT be president essentially drawing the short straw and drafted into service.
The result couldn't be any worse that what we have now.
2
The Berlin Wall fell in 1989. I remember thinking at the time how I had believed that it would never happen! It felt wonderful that it fell, the structure and the symbol. Now in 2019 we have a so called president who wants to erect another wall. I live in Arizona on the front-lines of Trump's invasion. Funny doesn't seem that much has changed except for the amount of Border Patrol personnel in the southern part of the state. I have noticed no hordes of invaders in my neighborhood. It is embarrassing as an American to have the world see this self-proclaimed fantasy presented as an issue. The man is unfit for the office and needs to be removed due to lack of competence and ethics. Jim and Kathy Yontz Phoenix, AZ
5
I think that those billions would be better spent on a real emergency, the children dying of starvation in Yemen .
3
Trump is a large figure, a veritable wall of a man. Why not simplify this whole mess? Trump should pick his spot somewhere on the southern border, wear his best red tie, white shirt and blue suit, and keep all those poor refugees from seeking asylum by virtue of his callow yet imposing presence.
3
For those against the wall, are you for all immigration, open borders and no security? Do you favor illegal immigration over legal immigration?
Otherwise, the wall ain't that big of a deal.
1
I wish that Trump would talk to the Chinese about the efficacy of using walls to repel "invaders." He might actually learn something from the historically best wall builder. He might talk to someone about Hadrian too. Just sayin'
3
Frank:
Thanks, but how can you describe Trump's "presidency" as incompetent and amoral? "Incompetent" it surely is. But not "amoral." I can think of nothing more IMMORAL than Trump's "presidential" efforts at self-aggrandizement, self-interest, and buffoonery.
2
Trump's intellect, such as it is, is apparently incapable of working out the simple fact that while his imaginary hordes of terrorists must be stopped at the southern border even though there hasn't been a single incident attributable to a terrorist crossing it, thanks to him millions of people are boarding airplanes every day screened by an absent TSA staff. Now which is more likely? A terrorist who walks a thousand miles to the US border, waits weeks or months for the far more common opportunity to be turned back by the border patrol, or some suicidal loony already in the US who casually walks through the badly understaffed airport security checkpoint and blows up a plane? Sadly, it's more than Trump's tiny brain can follow.
3
Attention is Mr. Trump’s oxygen. Hopefully, the press will learn from 2016 and will not run to cover every “statement” or tweet. Most times this is not news - just the rantings of a narcissist.
2
Anyone who listens to Foxnews, AM talk radio, or Donald Trump knows that the southern border is in crisis. There is no doubt that killer mobs of drug addicts and rapists are mobbed in caravans on the other side, just waiting to invade to kill all of our babies or worse. It is that fear that Trump sells to the people of America so that they will continue to support him. Fear mongering has nothing to do with building a wall. It has to do with frightening Americans and making them hate. Trump has seized the Republican Party, and if he succeeds in this, will seize the nation. He must be stopped. His irrational, erratic leadership has already cost us the respect of most of our foreign allies, and all of our enemies. He must not be allowed to continue this downward spiral. I don't care who is make a fortune on this. He must be stopped.
1
The number one problem in the nation isn't immigration. It's not even infrastructure, or the environment, or healthcare.
If the wall is a metaphor for anything, it's a symbol of how are country can't get a blasted thing accomplished, and how we've become so small as a nation that our President's number one priority is to build that darn thing.
So Mr. Trump, and Trumpistas, go ahead and build the blasted thing. Throw billions and billions at the monument that proves just how small we've become as a nation.
What did your generation do? We built that wall.
You want that as your legacy? It's yours.
But after it's built, they'll still come. By air, by sea, by tunnel, by ladder. The drugs will flow, as they always have. Right through those entry ports, otherwise known as the holes in the wall.
Mission accomplished. Billions of dollars ( small potatoes as Trump supporters are fond of saying) thrown down the drain, to prove just how small you are.
2
By his other boondoggle, the tariffs on steel, any wall built out of steel will be that much more costly. What a maroon.
2
Nothing like a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem. Oh yeah it's the Republicans...fits their overall policy positions.
3
I take issue with a few aspects of this opinion piece.
This wall may be a symbol or a "manhood thing for him" or however we want to paint it, but it carries significant value, it should be used by the opposition to gain something.
Why are we not expecting Chuck and Nancy to get something very valuable in exchange? We have heard no concessions on their part... no offerings. They have the biggest golden-goose opportunity here and they are throwing it away. DACA, safe Obama-care, Mueller protection, you name it...
Let me call out the writer of this article and say that
"Pilosi and Schumer have staked an equivalent ego-based claim against the wall as Trump... They have made it their mission to either live or die by this wall's existence or lack thereof"
...and the sad part is they will probably lose...
If you think the senate will vote to override Trump's declaration of an emergency your wrong 100 times out of 100 and if any judge dares impose his belief on what constitutes an emergency, its a slippery slope from there... precedent defers that judgement to the president. No injunction could stop an emergency because it by definition carries urgency.
The only way this ends is Trump caving (which he cant afford) or more likely, he declares an emergency and gets the wall anyway and not to mention MORE FUNDING FOR IT. Not sure why anyone isn't talking about this. Emergency declaration doesn't have a limit on spending.
3
I type his comment with President Trump’s “wall speech” about 2 hours away. Against my better judgment, I’ll watch as much of the speech as I can stomach.
Frank Bruni is right about Donald Trump’s neediness and the fact that Trump is not really interested in a wall along our southern border.
As Frank Bruni points out, Donald Trump is flexing his muscles and seeking a victory over the Democrats, over the mainstream media and over everyone grumbling about Trump’s nonsensical, scattershot foreign policy and his seat-of the-pants approach to the economy.
What if the 9:00pm EST time slot were filled with the heads of every major network, appearing together and explaining – one after another – why Donald Trump’s history of lying shamelessly about everything led them not to grant time for his wall speech? They could each invite viewers to watch and hear the Trump speech streamed on their respective websites.
Would that rebuke of Donald Trump cause the earth to spin wildly off its axis? No, life would go on, and a point which should have been made two years ago would be on record.
If it was such an emergency on the border, why have the troops that were sent to the border before election day now been withdrawn?
Why don't the pundits call it Berlin Wall II?
If his 'ego" wall' gets built, be prepared for him to name it "TRUMP WALL" in gold letters. His little personhood will be so excited; he will talk about it every day and have his picture taken in front of it. Then, he will hang the picture in the Oval Office and kiss it every morning. I'm serious. The border wall has little to do with border security, than with his pathological narcissism and endless need for adoration from his fans, his pathological expression of racism and bigotry and his very sad walled off sense of reality. He's delusional and a very sick man. Dangerous too. MUST GO!
1
The wall isn't just a symbol of President Trump's neediness; it's a symbol of his need to prove his manhood and virility.
Erecting a big, beautiful wall? Give me a break.
1
As usual the hypocrisy with wich the USA views foreign threats usually created by themselves ( i.e. the refugees ). Where does
Trump think the names of cities like San Francisco, Santa Fe, Albuquerque ,etc etc or names like Arizona, California, New Mexico etc come from, if not from invasions of refugees coming from Europe for a better life. The original Americans are those still in ghettoes with limited access to their old territories.
No, it's not about Trump's "neediness".
It's about Republican voters who want to put up a symbol expressing the visceral fear they feel towards an America that they insist owes them, and the hatred they feel towards everyone in it who doesn't kowtow to them.
They'd build a giant middle finger if they could. Trump uses that ugly malice to protect himself from scrutiny into his illegal business dealings.
2
This isn't about a wall. This is about democracy.
Given all that's going on maybe we should look beyond the forefront of this story? Trump is holding our entire country, including our Government, as hostages and he's using the money (an amount he's surreptitiously increased) as the negotiation tactic. Only there's no negotiation, it's concessions, from the Democrats and he's more than willing to do whatever it takes to stop the Mueller investigations.
Now Mattis and Kelly are out of the picture, who else is left to stop his plan to prevent the newly elected Democrats from doing their jobs because that is what this is about: stopping the Democrats and he's using us, the public, as collateral damage. He's shut down the Gov't because the Dems now control Congress. Period.
Anyone know why McConnell is AWOL? I don't put this past the traitor and his minions because they know once the Dems start pealing off the layers, the rotten smell emanating from whatever they've been going to great lengths at hiding, will continue to reek for years to come. The whole does not equal the sum of its parts.
Mueller uncovered far more then he or anyone could ever have imagined. The GOP have taken our entire country hostage and they're using the $$$ to ensure we as a nation, do not progress beyond the ideological coup that has devoured us. Look beyond what's in front of you because someone else is hiding behind the curtain. This isn't about a wall. This is about democracy.
3
Whatever happens it should be part of any agreement that Trump's name NOT appear ANYWHERE on the wall.
1
In the early golden days of unrestricted European immigration (19th century) immigrants who would be a burden on society were turned away. The recent case of the boy who died after being caught with his father in the desert is instructive. The father was reported as speaking only a Mayan dialect but illiterate as well. How are similar immigrants not going to be in the public charge, or else going to be abused?
2
A Lego wall would most appropriate!
1
On February 21, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon arrived in China for an official trip. He was the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China since it was established in 1949. (www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_nixchina_1.html)
The story is told, obviously apocryphal, that the American officials accompanying Nixon, kept asking the Chinese leader, 'when did you have the last election?', to which, he simply smiled, but said nothing for a long time. After being badgered for too long, he finally said, 'you Amelicans, always asking about elections; ok, I had my last election just befole bleakfast'.
So, if the wall does get erected, will it be called the 'The Trump Wall' or 'The Trump Election'?
Frank must be confused. Out of the entire planet, Mexico has the highest murder rate. The southern border wall does not belong to Trump it belongs to the American people. Long after Trump is gone it will protect us all, even Frank. You see each year thousands of illegal immigrants try and out run the the US border guards like "the running of the bulls". Some get caught some don't. The wall works. That is exactly why Chuck and Nancy don't want it.
1
Rule #1 in the dictator's playbook is "Make them afraid." Trump is following the script.
2
Let the foot-shooting begin.
Anyone that closes an editorial by quoting that despicable Pelosi loses all credibility.
That she managed to negotiate 4 years as speaker underscores the degree of self dealing and depravity that abounds in DC.
Just what kind of pictures can she have?
Can't wait to see the two stooges (Pelosi and Schumer) hit the air waves tonight.
1
Trump's "big, beautiful wall" is less a symbol of Trump's than of his neediness than it is of his stupidity (because he doesn't understand why it won't work and why it can't be built) and his fear (that Coulter, Hannity and Limbaugh will hand him is manhood on a plate if he doesn't force the Democrats to capitulate).
Folks, the only "wall" we're going to need is the one around the portrait of Trump that, tragically, will have to be added at some point to the National Portrait Gallery in DC (should it ever reopen) -- to keep Trump's portrait from getting pelted with tomatoes and rotten eggs on a daily basis.
1
What a ludicrous assertion. The duly elected president wants to build a physical a barrier to assist in the enforcement of duly enacted laws regulating immigration. Only liberal leftists favoring open borders would find such a reasonable proposal in any way objectionable. I intend to lock the doors to my home tonight - perhaps that makes me racists.
1
So, I gotta great idea! Let's claw back the recent Republican tax break for the rich and use that money to build Herr Trump's Folly -- a wall bigger than the Great Wall of China! Think about it! Tourism! Model Sales! See it from Space flights and balloon rides! Put lottsa lights on it and take pictures of it from Mars!
1
Mr. Bruni truly understands Mr. Trump.
Whatz Bruni putting in his coffee. Trump isnt after ego gratification but real, concrete political power. Get a clue.
Mr. Trump has a big hole down inside, which he has spent his whole life trying to fill - with money, mostly, but also with fame, attention, and lately the cheers of the crowd ("my people"). Being tough, even bullying, seems to play well with that crowd, but the wall will send them into ecstatic chants of "Trump, Trump, Trump" when he next holds a red-hat rally. That is what he carves; that is what he is after. Sadly, it fills the hole only for hours - maybe not even until Airforce One gets back to Andrews. Poor Donald, he can never really fill that hole. Though he is POTUS; though he is very wealthy, he just can't seem to fill it up for very long at all.
3
@Anne-MarieHislop I think that it is impossible to fill a Black Hole. I read somewhere that Black Holes are fundamentally negative and destructive. America needs to rid herself of the Black Hole named Donald J. Trump or she will cease to exist.
The Democrats should begin requesting specific project plans for the wall, and they could agree to tie the wall money to various conditions, such as final Congressional review and approval once the actual project plans have been submitted. Democrats in Congress could also ask for an analysis or study of the wall, and have that made public, as a condition to approve any money.
OK - both the author and the commentators are not living in challenged areas of California, such as Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose, and the entire valley of California - central.
Yes, Trump is never accurate. I think that is on purpose. If you catch him telling a truth or near truth, he figures, you might hold him to that, but a lie, a lie is quicksand.
However, California needs as much as it can get in the way of deterring persons without documentation who are illiterate, poor, and from third worlds.
Just yesterday, Gavin Newsom - now governor of California, made an inaugural promise to provide medical care for the undocumented.
REALLY? 10 million persons living in California are now going to share in the depleted medical services that Californians, naturalized, green card carrying and everyone else has to pay for and fight for good quality medical care. REALLY?
to Mr. Bruni's point, that Trump has exaggerated and made unfounded claims about "crime committed by undocumented immigrants": They do commit all kinds of crimes, starting with trespassing, then stealing, then graffitti, and then gang and other types of high crimes involving the combined criminal behavior of more than one person.
The FBI collects all arrest data. It is impossible to know if the arrestees were charged, prosecuted or not from arrest data. It is impossible to know how many actual crimes result in a police report and an arrest. Trump is correct.
2
@RR
Hello from Los Angeles! Let's consider that our problems are worsened by politicians and pundits who would rather generalize peoples and populations, and exaggerate their menace to stoke fear and hate, than imagine how strong our culture (and economy) can be by solving our problems with the best of human interests. Medical care, education, and respectful law enforcement are all equal partners.
8
@RR
so, why is Trump insisting on a barrier that doesn't make any sense and is sure to be rejected? There does not appear to be any wall between Mr. Trump and the aliens he hires to work at Mar-a-Lago every winter.
Could it be your are represented by nobody?
2
@DBR No I'm pretty sure putting a great burden on our taxpayers so that illegal criminals get free healthcare is a bigger problem than what you perceive to be "generalizing peoples" and vague "exaggerations."
Hello from Beverly Hills.
1
Is it possible that Trump is a non-essential government worker and putting him on furlough?
15
Trump is the Sun Tzu of politics. His results in winning the highest office in the land speak for themselves. Sowing all this chaos and confusion over the wall is being done to neutralize his newly resurrected Democrat opponents. The fact they won back Congress is now completely forgotten as is their agenda.
Trump’s life is entirely an effort to compensate for an extremely deep (and completely justified) sense of inadequacy.
9
"Seldom has a president’s ego required so much shoring up. There’s not enough concrete in creation for that job."
An understatement.
But the Republican Party is up to the task! They've finally found a man ready to assume presidential dictatorship under their enabling auspices.
10
@AMR Excellent point. Maybe it's not Trump using diversion tactics as much as the Republican party using Trump to divert us from their tax cuts and ultra conservative agenda. While we fuss and fume over Trump's antics they are continuing to degrade environmental protections and dismiss safety nets for children. Now sowing chaos into Federal workers - fear makes people more malleable.
4
I believe most of our citizens, including legal immigrants, favor enhancing security on the Southern border. While a wall is not, in and of itself, a solution, there are clearly portions of the border that should have adequate barriers to prevent illegal entry via that route. What has developed is a clash of egos between President Trump and the Speaker of the House that now has little to do with actual security.
2
@Thomas Smith
I would prefer we work on enhancing illegal entry via 21st-century technologies.
And if you think a wall (which will take years to build) will keep out the illegal immigrants, think again.
These aren't illegal immigrants, they are asylum seekers.
4
Latest polls show the American public blames the current White House occupant and the Republican Party for the shutdown. So given this and other flashing red lights, how long before Republican Party leadership bites the bullet and cuts the party free from this rolling executive branch catastrophe? The party will take a big hit in the short run, but it's reaching the point where its long term survival a viable political party is at stake.
7
At some point, Trump boosters need to decide if Trump is so stupid that he doesn't understand his wall costs 50 times the amount we need to spend on a fool proof barrier or if he is lying to his base so he can make more money.
https://www.france24.com/en/20190108-high-tech-border-wall-plan-display-ces
1
Donald Trump is a buffoon and deserves to be disgraced. If this were Shakespeare or Dickens, we would be rescued from this mess. Who will rid us this fool?
12
I am weary of cranking out comments on Mr. Donald J. Trump. And yet--
I read stuff produced by fine writers like yourself and I think, "Spot on! That guy is spot on!"
And I feel the fatal itch to write and TELL you so. In so many words.
Your remark about "all the concrete in the world." Spot on! Ms. Pelosi's remark about "beaded curtain"--delightful! Hadn't heard that one. Her remark about "manhood"--oh gosh! Our President must be writhing with frustrated anger and malice when he reads THAT one. Bulls-eye!
But I read your piece, Mr. Bruni--and an odd thought occurred to me:
What'll it be like when Mr. Trump is GONE?
When we stop hunting through The New York Times (excellent as it is) several times a day--wondering, "What's he done NOW? What mischief is he up to NOW?"
When we have a grownup MAN in the White House.
Or (just as good--or better) a grownup WOMAN in the White House.
And here's something that gnaws at my vitals. (So to speak.)
Will we ever get it back?
The respect--the admiration--the deference of the world--
--to what was once the world's leading democracy?
Or will they continue to stifle their laughter behind a decorously raised hand--
--whenever the President of the United States gets up to speak?
Have we now become--
--a permanent joke in the eyes of the world?
The schoolyard bully--
--that swung too hard at someone or something--
--and went SPLAT--
--and everyone laughed?
I don't know.
Does anyone?
20
@Susan Fitzwater
“ I really don’t care do U “.
I’m just so exhausted, and can only pray for the END. And I’m an atheist. Seriously.
3
@Susan Fitzwater
Susan, there is hope that the presidency can regain the dignity that has been squandered by trump. If history is any lesson: look how much the world welcomed ad celebrated Obama's election after W. waged a ridiculous war in Iraq and trashed the economy.
3
It's these Trump Deranged pundits that are needy.
4
What it really boils down to is that Donald Trump is a fraud and a loser, and a failure at everything except conning gullible rubes. That’s why he’s in office (with minority support), and that is the only reason this “presidency” exists: To convince a loser that he’s not one.
11
It’s like letting Queeg explain the strawberries! It’s a capital idea to “out” this fact-addled fool!
2
The wall is fantastical, as are Trump's stated reasons for wanting one, but the consequences of going without pay due to the impasse are very real. And no, despite his claims otherwise, Trump has no idea what losing one's income is like. It's certainly more fearsome than the border.
So let Trump make his case tonight, absurd as it is. Let him take ownership for the shutdown. And then, let those who are getting hurt by Trump's grandstanding make their own appeal. Let's hear about the immediate consequences of Trump's standoff. It's time he stopped putting words in their mouths about worthwhile sacrifices.
5
“It’s like a manhood thing for him,” Pelosi reportedly told House Democrats ...
A manhood thing born of festering insecurity.
6
Neediness? Try vanity and bigotry.
5
How many illegals have crossed the border from Canada into the US? That should be asked of him in a public forum.
6
Caveat emptor. Never EVER again elect a shifty real estate businessman from NYC president of the USA.
And, by chance, if you do, just make sure he isn't an insane racist demigod who looks good on T.V.
7
Trump is a shameless, corrupt liar, a horrifying travesty for this country, but he is enabled by shameless, corrupt, lying Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP elected officials. Along with his Cabinet, made up of lying toadies, they kiss up to his tender, babyish ego and incessant need for praise. It's the biggest, worse joke I have ever heard, and I no longer have the heart to laugh at the destruction of every last shred of decency and honor in our public sphere. I'm glad Nancy Pelosi makes fun of him. It must really stick in his craw.
15
The Great Wall Of Viagra.
Period.
22
Pathetic newspaper. Once Great, now nothing but a Trump bash - day to day, hour by hour. Sunday paper EVERY section. is an anti-Trump diatribe.
3
@ej cullen; I would agree with you but I support capitalism. They're in a declining industry with falling readership and shrinking revenues, other newspapers are dropping like flies, they don't want to join them, so the only thing is to move down-market to increase sales--join the grocery-store check-out-line tabloids if you have to, but stay in business!
@ej cullen: trump earns day by day, hour by hour every bit of his bashing. Try taking your head out of trump's behind and smell the clean, fresh air that decent people breath before he fouls that too.
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@ej culle
Becsuse trump deserved bashing.
H is a vicious evil man .
2
Unfortunately there is far more involved in the Trumpian gut-wrenching daily disaster scene than his massive extreme narcissist ego. He stirs up hatred with the complete support of the so-called Republican Party. They are the source of his power. McConnell is his enabler.
Trump has become the symbol of the worst of America. He emboldens racists, bigots, misogynists and yes, anti-Semites to spew their hatred. This is not about enforcing national border security, Trump's "Wall of Shame" this is about scapegoating in the classic style of Trumps dictator mentors including Adolph Hitler.
The Wall is about getting more cheers from his fans in an attempt sate his unquenchable narcissism, true. But the most serious problem we face is the complete corruption of the Republican Party. Shame on them all for allowing a so-called president to destroy our nation.
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Thanks, Frank. You have said it so well: our out-of-control Acting President is an addict to self-stroking and self-satisfaction. Self. Self. Self. If he were my kid, I tell him to take it to his room.
3
I dont care about this perverted fraud's psychosis anymore. Indict and arrest!
7
I am a Democrat and I am always right. And, if you disagree with me even 1%, well you must be racist. Now, who is the real needy one?
2
Mitch McConnell bares a lions share of the responsibility of this soft-coup against America.
President Bone Spur is a moron, egotistical, but still just a moron.
McConnell is corrupt and may be tied to Russian money.
They hang traitors don't they?
5
I like the look of Mexico’s money.
I want them to pay for The Wall in pesos.
https://www.fxexchangerate.com/mxn-currency-images.html
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Apart from Trump’s infantile self centeredness, his constant acts of distraction, his acts of crowd hypnosis, I guess if it’s built out of steel he might imagine it would give a lot of work to people who need it. And that means potential votes, especially in Southern States. Now, surely the US can afford to give Trump his 5 billion, as it’s a drop in the ocean for such a mega economy. Why not give the guy his money?. The wall will never be built. Then there might be more space for all to focus on the issue of his finances, Russian collusion and sabotage of the electoral system and many other issues.
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@Hugh Grant: You don't give a hysterical brat child who can't have his way what he wants...it only makes them worse.
This piece would be laughable if the issue of immigration reform was not major issue - it has been for the last 30 years in fact. This time the issued is compounded by denying their political nemesis a political win.
However, President Trump is not acting politically. He is authentic in trying to implement immigration reform.
Current immigration into the US from Central American countries is not the result of the brutal civil war as it was during the early 80's when I illegally immigrated from El Salvador.
Current immigration from Mexico and Central American countries is the result of political corruption and the gang warfare in almost every barrio in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. However, many U.S. inner-city have gone through the same brutal situation (Pico-Union area in Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, St Louis, Chicago, Baltimore, etc.) Where are the populations from U.S. inner-cities supposed to emigrate to escape their situation?
Democrats are determined to have Open Borders, plain and simple. Through illegal immigration they intent to secure future political political power. By securing urban populations dependent on services, they secure a permanent voter base.
Democrats are afraid President Trump's message will resonate with Americans.
1
Put an eight minute broadcast delay on the oval office wall commercial address. The rebuttal should come together fast, Trump, Pence, and the H.S. Secretary have already stated their emphasis: illegal indigenous peoples as terrorists, who will be repelled by the wall gods.
3
But enough about me. How do you like my wall?
2
Why is anyone still afraid of immigrants from the South? It is the Russians who are bed with many Americans now either literally or figuratively. Luring Americans to commit treason, launder money, and sway elections. Now THAT I would spend 5B$ to stop.
7
The man is so insecure, I wonder if he still has his baby blanket?
2
Bring back the fairness doctrine, for the sake of truth.
Better yet, have a ticker at the bottom of the screen on any network so that the press can fact check any claim. If it is deemed a lie, then a loud ding would be heard and numbers counted.
I doubt the President would be heard at that point ...
4
It's like watching an angry toddler who demands that you watch him play president. This game got old really, REALLY fast!
4
As 'Pope' Scott Adams declared on Periscope this afternoon, the only moral wall according to Pelosi and the Democrats is the 'Holey' one.
We need a way to have him certified as mental insufficient and not have him in the presidency position for two more years.
3
Trumpmandias : Something about a Wall
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “a border wall of stone
Stands in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And yellowed hair and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Donald Trump
, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
3
While Trump is forcing a government shutdown and an existential crisis over his narcissistic need for a wall, there are plenty of other problems that seek our attention, such as the Mueller Investigation, the investigations into acting Attorney General Whittaker and nominated for AG, Barr. There are issues related to fixing healthcare, appropriations for infrastructure projects and protecting the environment (especially after Pruitt had torn down so many regulations). In short, there's a lot of important work to do other than pandering to a child-like Commander in Chief. He is such an energetic ball of chaos that everything gets sucked into the gravity well of his eventful horizon.
3
The wall may be his own tipping point issue in which he brings himself down. His unbridled gall, egomaniacal wanderings, and conscious lying will hopefully be as fateful as the tape on the door at Watergate.
4
Only when Trump-henge in San Diego is leveled will this issue truly be gone. He will lust after those wall “swatches” for as long as he has Stephen Miller in his orbit.
2
Let's call his ailment what it is - a deep, deep personal insecurity that stems from a lifetime of failure. The NY elite look down on him, he can't get loans from banks, he's lost most of the money daddy gave him and he's been bankrupt 6 times. He lost to Hillary by 3 million votes and just lost the mid-terms by 9%. Basically he's a failed human being who survives by conning other people. To our patriotic friends in Red America - please please leave the cult soon so we can be done with this disaster!
8
The lunatic is in charge of the asylum.
Or is the asylum in charge of the lunatic and no one has noticed.
Maybe he could invoke a LEGO project to finish it all - at least it would be colourful
1
Meanwhile, Mueller is rolling them up.
Trump family is next.
3
Just a little thought here from Canada. Perhaps the main reason your president (small p intended) wants a wall so much is because it will be the only tangible proof he was ever your commander in chief. Most of your other presidents of course have libraries; hope you get the nuance of that last sentence.?
9