Boots along the border

It’s a chance to change the channel from personal scandal and a narrowing Russia investigation. It’s also another bout of President Trump’s whirling, untethered thinking. Either way, his suggestion of posting troops along the Mexican border is a new low in his anti-immigrant push.

Over the weekend and into this week, Trump is rushing out ideas that don’t make sense, fail the reality test, and only serve to fire up his shrinking base of supporters. As ever, his remarks — on Twitter, not a composed speech — are flawed and erroneous.

The president wants to send an unspecified number of National Guard soldiers to aid Border Patrol guards. It’s in the name of border security even though illegal crossings are at a decades-level low. “We have horrible, horrible and very unsafe laws in the United States,” Trump said, sounding more like a last call bar patron than an informed observer. He’s adding a hint of tougher border laws to come.

Extra boots on the ground isn’t new. Past Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush dispatched troops to the border but in response to cartel killings, noticeable immigrant surges or unfilled Border Patrol ranks. None of these factors is at play today.

His vitriol is a return to the immigrant targeting that defined his run for office. It plays on unsupportable fears, a dangerous substitute for policy or consensus among his puzzled staff.

In a few days, the president may drift off on another tangent. But the damage is done via an unwarranted round in the immigration war he restarts when it suits him.