Book claims Trump wanted migrants to be ‘shot in the legs’

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is so impatient to stop immigration in the United States that he suggested the border wall be electrified with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh, and proposed that it should be fortified with a “water-filled trench” with “snakes or alligators”, during a March meeting with the White House advisors in the Oval Office, The New York Times reported.

He also asked his advisers to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico by noon the next day. Trump also advised that migrants be shot in their legs.

The New York Times report is based on interviews with more than a dozen White House administration officials involved in the events during the week of the meeting. The article published on Tuesday was adapted from “Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration,” a book to be published on October 8 by the publication’s reporters Michael Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis.

The 30-minute meeting was extended to two hours as “Trump team tried desperately to placate him.”

The meeting was attended by Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary at the time; Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state; Kevin K Mcaleenan, the customs and border protection chief at the time; and Stephen Miller, the White House aide who, more than anyone, had orchestrated Trump’s immigration agenda. Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff was also there, along with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and other senior staff.

Trump was furious with Nielsen and Pompeo over their soft approach over the immigration issue. He had routinely chided Nielsen as ineffective and, not tough-looking enough. The President was angry with Pompeo for having cut a deal with Mexico to allow the US to reject some asylum seekers.

“You are making me look like an idiot!” Trump shouted, according to the NYT, citing multiple officials in the room. “I ran on this. It’s my issue.”