Even Fox News can no longer figure out what Donald Trump is talking about
In the infamous words of Richard Nixon, “let’s make one thing perfectly clear.” There is no wall. There has never been a wall. No part of Donald Trump’s wall has been built. Ever. None. Not a single piece of steel, not a brick, not one mix of mortar. Nada. Bupkis.
So, when Donald Trump says things like, “A lot of wall has been built,” over and over and over, he is lying, over and over and over. On camera recently Trump actually said this: “A lot of wall has been built, we don’t talk about that but we might as well start because it’s being built right now, big sections of wall.” That is a complete lie. No part of the wall is being built. And when Trump says things like, “we don’t talk about that but we might as well start,” that’s code for a lie. “We don’t talk about that” because there’s nothing to talk about because it’s a lie. It’s Trump’s way of warning us that what he’s saying is a total ad hoc fabrication.
The Washington Post has an expression for this. They call it “Bottomless Pinocchio.” They have given “Bottomless Pinocchio” a specific definition, which is a complete and utter fabrication that has been repeated by Trump at least 20 times. The Post identifies Trump’s claim about the “biggest tax cut in American history” as his largest Bottomless Pinocchio to date, but Trump’s claims about the wall, that it’s being built and has actual physical reality, is not far behind.
Trump’s claim that his narrow theft of the presidency was a stunning victory is another Bottomless Pinocchio. In a recent tweet he wrote, “I won an election, said to be one of the greatest of all time.” No one says that but Trump, of course.
But when it comes to the Bottomless Pinocchio of Trump’s wall, even Fox News is confused. As Laura Ingraham of Fox News recently put it, “I must have missed the wall being built. What wall?” When one of the Trump-crazy talking heads tried to help her out, he said, “I think what he means is they’re upgrading certain parts of the wall …,” Ingraham cut him off. “That’s not a wall, stop saying it’s a wall. There is no wall.”
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.