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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's suggestion for immigrants: "Shoot them in the legs" and use "snakes or alligators"
WASHINGTON The Oval Office meeting this past March began, as so many had, with President Trump fuming about migrants. But this time he had a solution. As White House advisers listened astonished, he ordered them to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico by noon the next day.
The advisers feared the presidents edict would trap American tourists in Mexico, strand children at schools on both sides of the border and create an economic meltdown in two countries. Yet they also knew how much the presidents zeal to stop immigration had sent him lurching for solutions, one more extreme than the next.
Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. Thats not allowed either, they told him.
The president was frustrated and I think he took that moment to hit the reset button, said Thomas D. Homan, who had served as Mr. Trumps acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recalling that week in March. The president wanted it to be fixed quickly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/trump-border-wars.html
rzemanfl
(29,570 posts)tanyev
(42,623 posts)dalton99a
(81,599 posts)This, exactly.
Docreed2003
(16,878 posts)They came up with a cost estimate?
JFC...this guy is fucking nuts and they're like "yes sir, will get right on that...electrified fence and moat filled with snakes and alligators"
shanti
(21,675 posts)He sounds like a sadist.
underpants
(182,904 posts)In the Oval Office that March afternoon, a 30-minute meeting extended to more than two hours as Mr. Trumps team tried desperately to placate him.
You are making me look like an idiot! Mr. Trump shouted, adding in a profanity, as multiple officials in the room described it. I ran on this. Its my issue.
Ms. Nielsen, a former aide to George W. Bush brought into the department by John F. Kelly, the presidents former chief of staff, was in a perilous position. She had always been viewed with suspicion by the president, who told aides she was a Bushie, and part of the deep state who once contributed to a group that supported Jeb Bushs presidential campaign.
Drones
Kirstjen, you didnt hear me the first time, honey, Mr. Trump said, according to two people familiar with the conversation. Shoot em down. Sweetheart, just shoot em out of the sky, O.K.?
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)After all, is this really any different from what a President Hillary Clinton would do? Man, we're gonna have to "both sides" the shit out of this one! How far down have things gone when the "sane" person in the room was Thomas Homan, the guy who tried to go off on Pramila Jayapal last week.
Gothmog
(145,619 posts)D_Master81
(1,822 posts)Its called the Rio Grande