The anti-Washington
by Tom Sullivan
The anti-Washington spoke from the Oval Office last night to pitch his wall again amidst his partial government shutdown. This travesty started years ago as a campaign stunt:
As Mr. Trump began exploring a presidential run in 2014, his political advisers landed on the idea of a border wall as a mnemonic device of sorts, a way to make sure their candidate — who hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builder — would remember to talk about getting tough on immigration.
Now as the unlikely president, he cannot deliver on the wall or on having Mexico pay for it. So he’s holding the country hostage over what was, essentially, an easy applause line at his rallies to trot out if people started thinking about leaving.
Trump did not declare a national emergency last night. So, there’s that. The Washington Post released a “fact-checking cheat sheet” in advance of the speech because the anti-Washington famously cannot tell the truth.
The first half of his blessedly short address avoided mention of the wall entirely, mimicking concern (between sniffs) for a “humanitarian crisis” on the border. Trump wanted money to address shortcomings in processing new arrivals, issuing an “urgent request for humanitarian assistance and medical support.” Then he pivoted to claiming a “sharp rise” in illegal immigration and his familiar litany of lurid tales of animalistic violence by congenitally criminal, drug-smuggling immigrants from the south, and blaming Democrats for inaction. The answer to this proximate humanitarian crisis, Trump believes, is taking months and billions of tax dollars to build a physical barrier to keep them out when, in fact, they will still present themselves at legal ports of entry to request asylum in the land of the free, in accordance with U.S. and international law, wall or no wall.
Trump goes a very weird thing with his mouth pic.twitter.com/tOa8TfW7nl— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 9, 2019
Basically, the sitting president used a prime-time, Oval Office address to waste the country’s time. Driftglass summarized the speech before even hearing it.
"Government shutdowns are good and easy to win." — President Stupid, 3 hours from now probably.— driftglass (@Mr_Electrico) January 8, 2019
‘Nuff said.