White House report smacks down Trump’s favorite excuse for the wall

The Trump administration released its first official drug control strategy Thursday — and not once does it suggest that building a border wall might help curb drug addiction or the opioid crisis, undermining one of Trump’s key arguments in favor of a wall.

The report, the National Drug Control Strategy, lays out an array of policies to reduce “illicit drug use through education and evidence-based prevention programs.” But not one of those policies includes building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The report does mention drugs coming into the country in ways a wall would not prevent, such as through the mail. But Newsweek points out that the words “wall” and “barrier” are never mentioned in the same context that Trump uses them.

The report’s silence on a border wall speaks volumes about Trump’s repeated, absurd claims that such a wall is needed to stop illegal drugs from flowing into the country from Mexico.

Trump shut down the federal government for 35 days demanding Congress pay a $5.7 billion ransom to build Trump’s wall. During the shutdown, Trump repeatedly invoked illegal drugs as a scare tactic to try to convince Americans to support the wall.

In his first prime-time Oval Office address to the nation, Trump claimed a wall was needed to prevent drugs like heroin from entering the country. At the time, fact-checkers pointed out that most drugs coming across the border actually travel through ports of entry, hidden among legal goods — so a wall wouldn’t stop them.

The issue came up again earlier this week when a record amount of fentanyl was seized at the U.S.-Mexico border. Even though the 254 pounds of drugs were found in a tractor-trailer stopped for inspection at a legal border crossing, Republicans and White House officials bizarrely claimed the drug bust was evidence that a border wall is needed.

Additionally, Trump’s national security team testified before Congress on Tuesday about top national security threats facing the country. As the Washington Post pointed out, not a single official said there was a crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border.

It’s not surprising that the shutdown ended with Trump getting no money for his wall. It’s an obviously unnecessary waste of money, and a racist symbol to boot.

But Trump still isn’t willing to face reality. He desperately wants to build a border wall — but his excuses for building one make so little sense that even his own administration can’t defend them.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.