A New York Times report quotes an anonymous source who was present for a White House meeting on Tuesday, wherein President Trump reportedly said of his planned trip to the southern border, “It’s not going to change a damn thing, but I’m still doing it.”
I don’t believe that part of the report, but Trump would nonetheless be right that it can be a complete waste of time and taxpayer money. But it doesn’t have to be.
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There is no indication from the White House as of now that Trump has any public events scheduled for the trip on Thursday and they haven’t returned my request for comment Wednesday on whether there will be any. If it stays that way, if there aren’t live, nationally televised visuals of Trump at the dilapidated border, with agents showing him what they need, and where they need it, the trip should be canceled.
[Related: Ann Coulter: Trump visiting US-Mexican border is ‘beyond moronic’]
Just knowing that he’s going to see the border to say hello to the authorities will mean nothing. He might as well spend the time watching re-runs of Sean Hannity.
Trump has explained the current chaos at the border and within our absurd immigration system that effectively allows anyone who shows up on U.S. soil to stay and disappear into the country. He has highlighted the views of border agents, who say they need additional funding from Congress for technological security, more agents, and a physical barrier in vulnerable locations.
But what Americans haven’t seen is a detailed plan on specifically where a wall is needed, what it would look like and how it would help manage the crisis.
It’s a media-created myth that Trump’s fiercest supporters are foaming at the mouth for a 2,000-mile red concrete wall. Trump never said he was building such a thing, and everyone knows it wouldn’t work. But Trump’s supporters and a sizable portion of independent Americans are open to a proposal of different types of substantial barriers that would prove effective, depending on the terrain and what U.S. border patrol says is best. That’s a conversation about protecting the country that has nothing to do with the government shutdown.
And how would Democrats respond? Demand more “equal time” on TV so that they can call Trump mean again? Insist again that there is no crisis?
Trump is a brilliant showman and maybe the best salesman the world has ever seen. If he can’t put those two together for his trip to the border, he might as well abandon the wall idea altogether. He will have lost.
