There are times when Donald Trump’s behaviour seems so breathtakingly bold that it’s tempting to think that maybe he is, as his most ardent supporters insist, operating on a higher level where he’s playing four dimensional chess against opponents trying to understand the rules of checkers.
And then there are the times he does something a seven year would do. Like suggest digging a snake-moat along the southern border.
In their new book on the current (at the time of writing) president, Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault On Immigration, New York Times journalists Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear claim that Donnie’s obsession with stopping Mexican migration extended to coming up with wall and wall-adjacent solutions which sounded less like serious suggestions and more what an anxious primary school child would draw as a way of keeping the baddies out.
Such as? Well, electrifying the wall – you know, that one that hasn’t been built? That one.
Also, putting invisible spikes on the top.
Also, putting in moats filled with snakes and/or alligators – a suggestion which wasn’t just an idle suggestion but something for which Trump wanted costings calculated.
Also, shooting border crossers in the leg to slow them down.
Oh, and once he announced that he’s just shut the border down at noon the following day. And told Border Agents to just stop processing migrants, which everyone nodded at until he left and then admitted the president didn’t have the authority to demand.
And yes, we could tiresomely point out that the vast majority of “illegal” immigration from Mexico isn’t the tiny number of people crossing the border but people overstaying their visas. But hey, if Trump’s not going to bother with facts then it seems rude for us to do so.
But he should definitely be wary about animals. You know, because it hasn’t gone great in the past.
And also we realise that it’s not remotely the most important thing about Trump at this point in time, what with the whole Ukraine scandal in which our own prime minister is now enmeshed and all.
But the most important thing is that Donald Trump wanted a supervillain-style moat of snakes along the US-Mexico border. And you know, it’s so crazy it just might w… actually, no, it’s just crazy.