A wall (what little there is) built on lies
Insisting that Mexico would pay for a wall along the Southwestern border is one of President Donald Trump’s smaller lies.
He lied about this as a candidate for president in 2015, and he repeated the lie throughout his presidency; he even lied in 2019 about lying about having Mexico pay for the wall. The lie is xenophobic and demagogic, but it counts as a small lie from a small man, one who has told much bigger ones. To believe Mexico would ever pay for Trump’s wall is like considering investing in certain South African gold mines. It is farcical, but also a scam.
As we have said, Trump should be impeached and convicted, sooner rather than later, for his incitement of a mob to storm the Capitol on Wednesday and upend a free and fair election, an election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden. The big lie of Trump’s presidency is that of baseless voter fraud, a rhetorical assault on our democracy repeated and ferociously advanced by Texas’ junior Sen. Ted Cruz and indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cruz should be expelled from the Senate. Paxton should be sanctioned. They must be held accountable for advancing Trump’s big lie. There is no respite from ignominy. Nevertheless, Trump is visiting Alamo to marvel at a monument to one of his smaller falsehoods. He is visiting the Rio Grande Valley to, as White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said, “mark the completion of more than 400 miles of border wall — a promise made, promise kept — and his administration’s efforts to reform our broken immigration system.” This, too, is a lie.
As the Express-news reported last month, while 400 miles of border wall have been completed, only 30 miles occurred in new areas. Most of the work has been the updating of existing barriers and fencing. So, no, there is not a wall across the 1,954 miles of U.s.-mexico border. It is not beautiful, and Mexico did not pay for it.
We are paying for it. Trump diverted $10 billion from the Pentagon in 2019 and 2020 for his border wall.
The wall is ugly, divisive, foolish and built on falsehood. It is a monument to failure for a failed president.