Another day, another absurd New York Times story.
“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,” said the latest piece, this one an excerpt from another hit-job book.
“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. That’s not allowed either, they told him,” wrote Times’ reporters Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear in their forthcoming book Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration.
“Never said it. Never thought of it,” President Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office. “It was a total lie.”
Trump also took to Twitter to shoot the story down.
“Now the press is trying to sell the fact that I wanted a Moat stuffed with alligators and snakes, with an electrified fence and sharp spikes on top, at our Southern Border. I may be tough on Border Security, but not that tough. The press has gone Crazy. Fake News!” Trump wrote.
Now the press is trying to sell the fact that I wanted a Moat stuffed with alligators and snakes, with an electrified fence and sharp spikes on top, at our Southern Border. I may be tough on Border Security, but not that tough. The press has gone Crazy. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2019
The Times reporters said that their piece was based on interviews with “more than a dozen White House and administration officials directly involved” in discussions. Of course, none of them are named.
In an interesting twist, the new tale that Trump wants alligators in a moat mirrors something Barack Obama joked about in 2001.
“In Barack Obama’s first term as president, Republicans issued a challenge to the Democratic White House: increasing border security would open the door to a bipartisan reform package. Obama accepted the offer at face value and significantly increased border security,” MSNBC reported.
With this in mind, the Democratic president traveled to El Paso in May 2011 for a speech on immigration policy, and he explained at the time, “We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. All the stuff they asked for, we’ve done.”
Obama added, however, that GOP officials were complaining anyway. “Maybe they’ll need a moat,” he said to laughter. “Maybe they want alligators in the moat. They’ll never be satisfied.”
