Trump wins at border without Congress’ help

Forget the wall. President Trump has found a way to make the border armed and dangerous without having to build his monument to ignorance.

Trump has been talking about building a wall on the Mexican border ever since he got into the presidential race, but he has yet to make any real progress. He stopped pretending he’d make Mexico pay for it and demanded that Congress pony up $25 billion in U.S. taxpayer money for the job. His followers didn’t seem to notice the switcheroo. Lawmakers, however, were largely unenthusiastic.

Now, thanks to a ragtag caravan of refugees in Mexico whom Trump and his enablers portray as a disease-infested horde of gangbangers and terrorists, our president has found a way to militarize the

border without having to bother with congressional permission.

Trump has dispatched 5,200 troops to the border and is threatening to send another 10,000. On Thursday, he unilaterally decreed that the rules of engagement would include allowing soldiers to shoot if someone throws a rock, although he backtracked a bit the next day and said they “won’t have to fire.”

It’s easy to see how this could create a disastrous situation for soldiers and migrants alike, not to mention America’s reputation in the eyes of the world.

Not that Trump cares. He knows a good issue when he see one. And like it or not, polls show that a majority of Americans want stronger borders. Trump also knows that Democrats are at a loss about what to do with the caravan if, in fact, it ever reaches the U.S.

Of course, with the migrants hundreds of miles from the border, that won’t happen till Thanksgiving at the earliest. By then the midterms will be long over, and Trump will have made his point.

Breakfast of champions: It was quite a show the other day at the Brown Institute’s annual breakfast at the Fairmont, hosted by yours truly and featuring the two candidates for governor. Democrat Gavin Newsom and Republican John Cox both delivered serious-minded speeches to the crowd of 1,000 union leaders, lobbyists, developers and elected officials, each of whom contributed $100 to help San Francisco State interns in the institute’s fellowship program.

Cox ripped into the level of poverty in California and our terrible roads. He even earned brief applause when he questioned the idea of safe injection centers, saying, “I don’t know if I would want my child going to a safe injection center. I’d rather work on them not taking drugs in the first place.”

Cox did his best to get the San Francisco crowd to warm to him, though he stepped on a banana peel when he referred to Charlotte Shultz as “Charlene.” Newsom played the optimist, taking off his jacket, rolling up his sleeves and talking up the state’s economic boom.

Note to Gavin: If you’re going to play it like Bobby Kennedy, without a jacket, make sure your shirt fits.

Free food: Join me and my friend John Konstin on election day at John’s Grill. I’m greeting, John is feeding, for free.

Come one and all! This year key lime pie is being added to the menu, so at least we voters will get a just dessert after all of the noise we’ve had to put up with during the campaign.

In box: At least 10 pieces of campaign literature have landed in my mailbox every day for the past two weeks.

Did I read them all? Of course not. Who has the time?

Movie time: “A Star is Born.” I’ve seen two other versions of this movie over the years. For my money, the star of this latest remake, Lady Gaga, has it all over Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland.

Bradley Cooper does an equally good job as the alcoholic, drug-addicted rocker who’s heading over the hill. Worth seeing.

Big Mac: Willie McCovey was one of the most comfortable people I have ever known. He was a barbershop guy, with a Southern accent that got deeper every year.

He also had a wonderful sense of humor.

At the opening of what was then Pac Bell Park, the Three Willies were invited to share in the ceremony of throwing out the first pitch.

As we were headed to the mound, McCovey said, “Watch out for Mays. He’s such a showboat that he’ll make a point of outdoing us, so think of something.”

Sure enough, Willie Mays opened by firing a strike across the plate. McCovey answered by lobbing a slow, arcing, devil-may-care rainbow to the catcher.

Then it was my turn. I bent over and rolled my pitch across the grass.

Mays was clearly annoyed. McCovey burst out laughing and said, “You did it!”

Like I said, a barbershop guy. One you hope to sit next to.