ANALYSIS/OPINION:
In his blockbuster 2016 campaign for president, Donald Trump made a lot of big proposals to fix our countrys problems that he said could be accomplished relatively quickly.
His biggest proposal was to build a big, beautiful wall along our 2,000-mile border with Mexico. But one year and three months into his presidency that wall is still a figment of his imagination, and most likely will never be built.
But thats just one half of his proposal. To build a wall of that size and length would cost about $80 billion and very probably a great deal more. The other half of his pledge to voters was that Mexico would pay for it. And millions of his supporters believed him.
Throughout his whirlwind campaign, Mr. Trump would ask the legions of voters who packed his rallies, Who is going to pay for the wall? And his supporters would roar back, Mexico!
Yet, from the very beginning, the president of Mexico repeatedly said his country would never pay for the wall, and told Mr. Trump that at a meeting late in the campaign. (More on that in a minute.)
But Mr. Trump continued to insist he would make Mexico cough up the money, though never detailed how he would do that.
Throughout the campaign he described a wall that would be made of thick precast concrete slabs and soar 35 to 40 feet into the air.
Its going to be a high wall; its going to be beautiful, he said, adding that it was going to be so easy to make Mexico to pay for it.
But it wasnt long before cracks began to appear in his vision of a wall along a border that in many places, experts said, it could not be constructed because of its impassable terrain. At best, the wall would be about 1,000 miles long.
Then, when the time came to pass this years deficit-filled, $1.3 trillion budget, Congress began to have second thoughts about President Trumps wall, which many considered to be a huge boondoggle. And, by this time, the administration had reduced its request to $25 billion.
But Congress balked on giving the president even that much money, eventually offering him a measly $1.3 billion that was to be used only for primary pedestrian fencing and secondary fencing to back up existing fencing.
Before the budget bill arrived at the White House for his signature, it was unclear Mr. Trump would sign it. Yet sign it he did, arguing that if he vetoed the bill, it would jeopardize the huge increase in new defense spending.
Yet, soon after he signed the bill, Mr. Trump told a group of Baltic leaders at a White House meeting last week (April 3) that Weve started building the wall.
Incredibly, despite budget language prohibiting the wall, Mr. Trump began telling others that the wall was being built anyway, The Washington Posts fact checker, Glenn Kessler, reported this week.
On March 28, he even tweeted photographs and declared: Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL! Mr. Kessler writes.
On March 30, he told a rally in Ohio that you saw those beautiful pictures We started building our wall. Im so proud of it. We started. We started. We have $1.6 billion, and weve already started.
In fact, what Mr. Trump had seen during a tour in California in March were mere prototypes of a concrete wall, not an actual wall along the border.
Indeed, the language in the appropriations bill he signed into law specifically makes clear that None of the $1.57 billion appropriated for border protection may be used for those prototypes, Mr. Kessler reported.
Is this a case of Mr. Trump inventing his own reality, or a failure on the part of his senior advisers to thoroughly brief him on the budget bills contents?
When Mr. Trump met with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in 2016 during a campaign trip to Mexico City to discuss the wall, Mr. Trump told reporters their discussion was substantive, direct and constructive.
We discussed the wall, he said after meeting privately with Mr. Pena Nieto. We didnt discuss payment of the wall.
But in a tweet following the event, Mr. Pena Nieto said that he made it clear to Mr. Trump that Mexico will not pay for the wall and that the two went on to other topics afterward, according to a report filed by CBS News.
In a famous remark about political chicanery, Abraham Lincoln once said you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people some of the time, but you cant fool all the people all the time.
Donald Lambro is a syndicated columnist and contributor to The Washington Times.
See the original post:
Donald Trump's wall is getting push-back from Congress ...
- North Korea Wants to Convince the World It Can Nuke Hawaii. Donald Trump Is Happy to Oblige. - The Intercept [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- Does Donald Trump Have Dementia? - The Root [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- Donald Trump's peculiar obsession with authoritarian leaders - Chicago Tribune [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- 'South Park' Creators Skirt Donald Trump Next Season Because Monkey Running Into Wall Can't Be Made Funnier - Deadline [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- Donald Trump Has Been Lying About The Size Of His Penthouse - Forbes [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- This is the best news Donald Trump has had in a while - CNN [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- AFT President: Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump Are Dismantling Public Education - TIME [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- The Donald Trump Zone of Uncertainty shows up in the health-care debate - Washington Post [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- Donald Trump Predicts Mideast Peace Is 'Not As Difficult As People Have Thought' - Huffington Post [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- Make America Great Again! | Donald J Trump for President [Last Updated On: May 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 3rd, 2017]
- Donald Trump Rage Tweets Against Media For Taking Seriously His Tweets - Deadline [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- Roger Stone: I Hooked Up Nigel Farage With Donald Trump - Mother Jones [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- Accused leaker Reality Winner called Trump an 'orange fascist' on Twitter - CNN International [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- Donald Trump's Approval Rating Is Better Than Bill Clinton's at This Point in His First Term - Newsweek [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- London, Qatar, Donald Trump: Your Tuesday Briefing - New York Times [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Escalates Qatar Crisis - HuffPost [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- How Donald Trump Shifted Kids-Cancer Charity Money Into His Business - Forbes [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- No, Donald Trump doesn't have 110 million people following him on social media - Washington Post [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- Donald Trump is the best 2020 recruiter Democrats could hope for - CNN [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- It's Time to Demand Donald Trump's Resignation - RollingStone.com [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- A brief history of Donald Trump's feud with Sadiq Khan, London's first Muslim mayor - Washington Post [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- Donald Trump has a lot of feelings about fame - CNN [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Is Never to Blame - New York Times [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to distract you from the Comey hearing - CNN [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- President Trump's Approval Rating Hit Another New Low - TIME [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- The Potemkin Policies of Donald Trump - The Atlantic [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- Jeff Sessions committed the one sin Donald Trump can't forgive - CNN [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- James Comey just went nuclear on Donald Trump - CNN International [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton and the true cause of Donald Trump's legitimacy crisis his own actions - Salon [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Proposes Covering Mexican Border Wall With Solar Panels - Futurism [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Tell Your Senators: Don't Let Donald Trump Take Our Cuba Policy Backwards - The Nation. [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Wrote a Cookbook - New York Times [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Donald Trump is destroying America's standing in the world and may end up destroying the world - Salon [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Donald Trump hasn't tweeted in a very long time - CNN [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Experts: Trump's Comey Firing 'Possibly Lawful, But Awful' - NBCNews.com [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Karl Rove, Erick Erickson slam Donald Trump - Salon [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- The Real Scandal Is Still Russia - Slate Magazine [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- 5 times UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn slammed Donald Trump - Politico [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- 9 questions Donald Trump needs to answer at today's news conference - CNN [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- So is Donald Trump secretly recording conversations or not? - CNN [Last Updated On: June 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 9th, 2017]
- Watch Donald Trump Throw Binders Full of Highway Environmental Reviews on the Floor - Slate Magazine (blog) [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2017]
- This week in Donald Trump's conflicts of interest: Kushner may have problems, but Trump's hotel raises lots of questions - Salon [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2017]
- Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Donald Trump looks like Mussolini but can be overcome - Salon [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2017]
- This One Tweet May Lead to Donald Trump's Impeachment - National Review [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2017]
- Fact Check: Donald Trump's Claims About Infrastructure - New York Times [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2017]
- The Worst of Donald Trump's Toxic Agenda Is Lying in Wait A Major US Crisis Will Unleash It - The Intercept [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2017]
- Boy Scout James Comey is no match for Donald Trump - Washington Post [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2017]
- Justice Department: Trump Can Take Payments From Foreign Governments - TIME [Last Updated On: June 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 11th, 2017]
- Marc Kasowitz, Donald Trump's lawyer, has clients with Kremlin ties - The Denver Post [Last Updated On: June 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 11th, 2017]
- Yes, Donald Trump is an incompetent buffoon but he's still a major threat to democracy - Salon [Last Updated On: June 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 11th, 2017]
- Democrats bet on Trump in Virginia governor's race - Politico [Last Updated On: June 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 11th, 2017]
- Will Donald Trump's anti-Muslim words on travel ban hurt his case? - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: June 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 11th, 2017]
- Donald Trump's State Visit To The UK Now In Doubt - HuffPost [Last Updated On: June 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 11th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Jr.: There's 'no ambiguity' in my father's orders - CNN [Last Updated On: June 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 11th, 2017]
- Ivanka condemns Donald Trump's 'vicious critics' - BBC News [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Surrogate Lays Out POTUS Case For Sacking Special Counsel Robert Mueller - Deadline [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Russia, Theresa May, Donald Trump: Your Tuesday Briefing - New York Times [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump in Wonderland: Literally everything our president says and does reflects the opposite of reality - Salon [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Is Turning Young Voters Off the GOPand Maybe Forever - Daily Beast [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Trump's Own Tweets Help Kill His Government's Travel Ban, Again - Fortune [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump's Approval Rating Sinks Further As Disapproval Hits Record High - Newsweek [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- When Jeff Sessions met Donald Trump: The origins of an alliance now strained - Washington Post [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump just held the weirdest Cabinet meeting ever - CNN [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Donald Trump to mayor of island sinking due to climate change: Don't worry about it! - Salon [Last Updated On: June 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 14th, 2017]
- Trump son tweet connects shooting to NYC 'Julius Caesar' play - CNN [Last Updated On: June 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 14th, 2017]
- Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump Jr. rush to blame Kathy Griffin and the left for baseball shooting - Salon [Last Updated On: June 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 14th, 2017]
- Donald Trump's Biggest Mistake Might Have Been Getting Elected - Vanity Fair [Last Updated On: June 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 14th, 2017]
- Congress Shooter Is Dead - TMZ.com [Last Updated On: June 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 14th, 2017]
- Trump faces first big domestic moment - Politico [Last Updated On: June 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 14th, 2017]
- Tiny mark on Melania Trump's birthday card to Donald Trump sparks wild theories - AOL [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Is Now Facing Three Emoluments Lawsuits - Slate Magazine [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Play Video - TIME [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Blocked Me on Twitter for Telling Him He's Not as Cool as Witches - Newsweek [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Senate passes Russia sanctions bill, pushing back against Trump - CNN [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Australian leader is on the hot seat for making fun of Donald Trump - Washington Post [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Flattery is Donald Trump's cocaine he's addicted to it - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Moving to Scuttle Obama Legacy, Donald Trump to Crack Down on Cuba - New York Times [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Donald Trump doesn't get the special counsel investigation. And he's never going to. - CNN [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Memo to Donald Trump: The election ended 219 days ago. You won. - CNN [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2017]
- Who in the White House Will Turn Against Donald Trump? - The New Yorker [Last Updated On: June 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2017]