President Trump, whose plans to campaign on a booming economy were ruined by the coronavirus, traveled Tuesday to the southern edge of Arizona to highlight completion of “more than 200 miles of powerful border wall” with Mexico.
He didn’t mention the fine print.
Nearly all 216 miles built since Trump took office replaced outdated or dilapidated fencing. Only about “three miles of new border wall system [have been] constructed in locations where no barriers previously existed,” according to Homeland Security’s June 19 status report on the wall.
The visit to Yuma, and later to Phoenix, marked Trump’s first public appearance since his poorly attended rally Saturday night in Tulsa, Okla., which has sparked speculation by some Republicans that Trump’s campaign needed major retooling.
The campaign had predicted a massive overflow crowd for his first public rally in more than three months, but the indoor arena in Tulsa was two-thirds empty, and Trump was humiliated, according to aides.
He also was angry that his aides had confirmed to the press before the event that six Trump campaign staffers involved in organizing the rally tested positive for COVID-19. (The total is now eight.)
Trump’s scripted attempts to paint a negative portrait of Biden were lost in a torrent of grievances and invective toward the media, China and the coronavirus, not to mention a bizarre reenactment of his tentative walk down a ramp after a commencement address days earlier.
“The most important thing in a campaign is the message. And the most powerful message he needs to develop is what’s wrong with Joe Biden,” said Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary under President George W. Bush. “If this election is about the incumbent, chances are Donald Trump will lose.”
On Tuesday, Arizona tallied the most COVID-19 cases of any day yet — 3,591 — and its hospitalization rate set a record for an eighth straight day, casting a heavy shadow on the president’s visit, especially his second event, a speech sponsored by a conservative advocacy group at a Phoenix church.
Trump has sidelined the White House coronavirus task force in recent weeks and spoken of the pandemic as if it had ended, even claiming in Tulsa that he has asked aides to “slow down” testing to keep the overall number of reported cases from rising. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 tops 121,000.
Before leaving the White House on Tuesday, Trump scoffed at his press secretary’s claim that the president’s call to slow testing was meant as a joke.
“I don’t kid,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn. “By having more tests, we find more cases.”
But making the wall a symbol of Trump’s harsh approach to immigration enforcement has drawn scrutiny on the project itself, especially since construction has occurred only on 10% of the border.
Trump tweeted a complaint Monday night after watching a Fox News report on the slow progress, declaring that the wall is “well under construction, fully financed and already over 200 miles long.”
Hat tip to Yahoo News.
I always thought of Obama as the most narcissistic President we have ever had. He was however slick and polished in his delivery and stayed on message constantly.
Trump is a bull shit artist with a deep seated need for love and adoration from everybody he is in contact with. A mafia style loyalty demand, and a thin skin for criticism.
We can do much better, stop being sold snake oil.