A few months ago, Donald Trump boasted that he had built “571 miles” of border wall during his term. The former president added that he planned to add another 200 miles within a few weeks, concluding, “I’ve built a lot more wall than I said I was going to build.”
All this was spectacular untrue. In fact, every element of the Republican’s claims turned reality on its head, distorting the facts on an issue he considers one of his top priorities.
It was emblematic of the GOP’s broader problem with the border policy debate: Reality continues to get in the way of their campaign rhetoric.
For example, the Washington Post recently published an analysis of the party’s advertising, highlighting dozens of ads criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the border, “while showing chaotic scenes filmed in 2018 under the Trump administration.”
One ad in particular showed footage of Central American migrants in Tijuana storming the southern border. The voiceover and text blamed Democrats for the unrest, which in reality unfolded during Trump’s presidency.
Against this backdrop, the former president traveled to Arizona last week for a photo op at the border wall, though Team Trump apparently forgot to fuss over the details. The Post reported:
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump came here Thursday to praise the structure to his right — “the Rolls-Royce of walls,” he called it — and to bemoan the unused portions to his left. Along with him, Border Patrol union leader Paul A. Perez called the standing fence the “Trump wall” and the inactive portions the “Kamala wall,” after Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
There was a dramatic problem with the rhetoric: As the Post article explained, “This 20-foot-long section of steel slats was actually built during the administration of President Barack Obama.”
In case it wasn’t clear, Democrats have never said that border barriers between the Pacific coast and the Gulf of Mexico are entirely unnecessary. There are high-traffic areas, party officials have long said, where it makes sense to have structures in place to prevent illegal crossings. During Obama’s tenure, it was not uncommon to build and repair barriers along these stretches of the border.
Starting last week, Trump has been trying to take credit for some of the Obama administration’s work, either (a) hoping the public wouldn’t notice the difference or (b) without any sense of reality.
Whatever the explanation, the Republican keeps trying to make the border wall central to his bid for a second term, and keeps stumbling.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
