The Great Wall of Trumpnia

Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Peter Baker, "How the Border Wall Is Boxing Trump In, The New York Times, Jan. 5, 2019; see also (1)

Image from article, with caption: A border fence in California. The impasse over President Trump’s vow to build a wall along the southwestern border is particularly remarkable given that even some immigration hard-liners do not regard the wall as their highest priority. CreditCreditDaniel Ochoa De Olza/Associated Press

Excerpt:

Michael D’Antonio, a biographer of Mr. Trump, said the wall appealed to the builder and brander in him. “I think he hears the beep, beep, beep of a cement truck backing up and the product being poured and the wall rising,” Mr. D’Antonio said. “He can grasp that stuff. He loves it.”

It would be a presidential legacy that future generations could see and touch, an accomplishment that would last for ages. “I think he’d like it being called the Great Wall of Trump,” Mr. D’Antonio said, with a plaque to the president who built it “every mile or so.”

The simplicity of the concept made it a powerful sales pitch on the campaign trail. “It’s a four-letter thing,” Mr. D’Antonio said. “It’s an idea that can be expressed in a single word, and I think that has great appeal to him as a marketer. It’s sort of ‘crooked Hillary’ or ‘lock her up,’ but it’s even better.”