The Mexican lie

Here is a non-news story if ever I heard one.

From CNN:

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has signaled to congressional Republican leaders that his preference is to fund the border wall through the appropriations process as soon as April, according to House Republican officials.

The move would break a key campaign promise when Trump repeatedly said he would force Mexico to pay for the construction of the wall along the border, though in October, Trump suggested for the first time that Mexico would reimburse the US for the cost of the wall.

The Trump team argues it will have the authority through a Bush-era 2006 law to build the wall, lawmakers say, but it lacks the money to do so. Transition officials have told House GOP leaders in private meetings they'd like to pay for the wall in the funding bill, a senior House GOP source said.

Did anyone honestly believe Trump would miraculously get the Mexicans to pay for the wall? Mexico is a sovereign nation, and a poor one at that. It was never a rational possibility. I doubt Trump himself believed the bull he was shoveling.

So what was Trump promising? I consider the "Mexico will pay for it" lie as comparable to an exaggeration for effect, comparable to George Bush's old "Read my lips, no new taxes" pledge. Nobody was actually going to read Bush's lips. The point was he was promising not to raise taxes.

In Trump's case, his pledge was to build the wall. If the CNN story is true, then it looks like that is exactly what he is trying to do. Ultimately, that is the criteria by which most voters will judge him.

Before you say, "But Trump said he would get Mexico to pay for it? That makes it a lie." If I promise you it is going to rain cats and dogs today, and all we get is a heavy rain storm, would you call me a liar for the absence of felines and canines dropping from the sky?  

(hat tip to Life with Dogs for the cartoon)