Donald Trump is definitely not famous for really thinking things through before he acts on them, and almost every controversial thing he does backfires on him pretty spectacularly. From his promise to make Mexico pay for the wall, to his string of losses in court over trying to ban Muslims from entering the country or transgender people from serving in the military, Trump’s track record for screwing himself over with ill-conceived plans is a spotless legacy of failure.
Nothing seems to come back on him quite as hard as his dumb, predictable rhetoric about the border wall: No sooner does Trump call it a “humanitarian crisis” at the border than his own federal agencies undercut him by releasing actual numbers — all of which show that border crossings are at a four-decade low, violent crime on the border is down, and crimes committed by undocumented immigrants have been decreasing every year for at least ten years.
But when Trump visited El Paso almost two weeks ago, he was definitely unprepared for the level of backlash he would get. Not only did he get torn up by the local fire department for lying about how many people were at his rally, but as NBC News reported at the time,
Essentially all of the officials here in El Paso county roundly condemned how the president has been talking about their community. They said his comments about El Paso having been a dangerous city are untrue. His comments about a wall that was built here in 2008, cutting crime here, are untrue. And that they’re worried he’s going to fly into El Paso again tonight and continue to lie about their city. They are so worried, in fact, that the county commissioners and the county judge passed this resolution today in which they say they are disillusioned by President Trump’s lies regarding the border and our committee. I have not seen such an unwelcoming committee for the president and one of his rallies in a very long time.”
Now El Paso County is actually suing President Trump for what amounts to defamation.
The lawsuit, which you can read here from local news station KTSM, names not just Trump, but his Secretaries of Homeland Security, Treasury, Interior, and Defense. The plaintiffs rightly accuse Trump of harming El Paso’s reputation and economy with his emergency declaration.
El Paso knows Trump only wanted to use them as a pawn in his racist game — and they’re having none of it.
Featured image via screen capture
