It’s ironic that Donald Trump has garnered the support of most of the conservative Christian crowd in the United States, despite issues like the credible allegations against him of sexual misconduct. The president has even been caught on tape bragging about his supposed freedom to commit sexual assault, adding more credibility to the allegations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl5HJBnPitU&t=2s
Despite this, the president remains on apparent good terms with much of organized conservative Christianity. Sunday is the Easter holiday, and the occasion gave yet another opportunity to see just how far removed many Christians’ favorite candidate is from the values they claim to hold dear.
While going into Easter services this Sunday, the president addressed immigration to the United States, something he also did on Twitter early in the morning. He went so far as to resuscitate one of his old campaign talking points, indicating that Mexico is itself “sending” questionable people into the United States.
More recently than the campaign, he revived a version of that idea when claiming that foreign governments sometimes manipulate the visa lottery program to offload the dregs of their societies in the United States. Both that claim and the indication that Mexico is somehow responsible for some sort of insurmountable danger of undocumented immigration to the United States are false.
That did not stop the president from parroting that claim and other nonsense while speaking to reporters on Sunday.
He said:
‘Mexico has got to help us at the border. If they’re not going to help us at the border, it’s a very sad thing between two countries. Mexico has got to help us at the border, and a lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA, and we’re going to have to really see. They had a great chance, the Democrats blew it, they had a great, great chance but we’ll have to take a look, but Mexico has got to help us at the border. [Undocumented immigrants] blow right through Mexico and they send them into the United States. It can’t happen that way anymore.’
To be clear, the president has indicated in the past what he means by having Mexico “help us at the border.” He has long indicated that he wants them to pay for a border wall in between us and them, even in the face of repeated insistence from the Mexican government that they won’t be doing any such thing.
Trump continuing to press Mexico in the face of their refusals isn’t representative of good deal-making abilities. It’s representative of an inability and/or unwillingness to come to terms with reality.
As for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, it’s deeply ironic for the president’s administration to have been the one to move to end the program and him blame Democrats for it ending.
Early Sunday morning, months after his administration announced it was moving to end the program meant to protect young undocumented immigrants, Trump tweeted:
‘Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!’
The president’s stance on the issue in the past has been to demand that Democrats support funding for his border wall if they want his approval on a DACA deal, so considering the longstanding left-wing opposition to the wall, it’s hardly surprising that no deal has moved forward. Even still, the president wastes no time in blaming Democrats for the stalemate.
For now, the program must remain in place as legal challenges to the president moving to end it continue to be worked out in court.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
