Donald Trump is five minutes away from yelling “Hey look over there, a squirrel”
“President” Donald Trump has turned his attention back to the caravan that is more than 1,000 miles away from our southern border, using Twitter to incite his base as usual. Trump tweeted Monday morning: “Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!”
On Halloween, Trump followed up with a tweet about the caravan that has people stymied as to what the hell he was talking about: “The Caravans are made up of some very tough fighters and people. Fought back hard and viciously against Mexico at Northern Border before breaking through. Mexican soldiers hurt, were unable, or unwilling to stop Caravan. Should stop them before they reach our Border, but won’t!”
Trump announced that the Pentagon will deploy as many as 5,000 active-duty troops to the border to prevent illegal entry by the caravan. If he sends that many troops to the border, there will be more troops at the border than caravan members. The Mexican Ambassador informed NPR on Monday morning that the caravan is shrinking, not growing, now approximately 3,000 in number, not the 7,000 that continues to be reported. This caravan is nothing new, and by the time the caravan completes the remaining 1,000-mile trek and arrives at the border in around a month from now, it will be smaller again.
With this attempt to change the focus of the media and the news cycle to alleged gang members and bad people coming our way, the President and this administration have no apparent plans to deal with the gang members, thugs and “very bad people” that exist within our borders already, some of them driving around in Trump vans. The mainstream media and the public must resist efforts to take focus off the real issues facing us, and it is not a caravan 1,000 miles away that is unarmed.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.