Trump officials have no idea how to handle his latest border meltdown

On Tuesday, Trump boasted to reporters that he was “totally prepared” to tank the United States economy by closing the southern border, a move that would cost billions. However, much like his imaginary health care plan, Trump has no idea what closing the border looks like, and neither does anyone else.

As Trump spent the day insisting he’s 100% ready to follow through with his foolish plan, those around him were trying to explain what the closure would look like, praying the border won’t actually close, and offering to trash the Constitution.

Larry Kudlow, director of Trump’s National Economic Council, said that the Trump team is exploring if it could shut down the border yet still allow trucks with freight to get through. It’s an absurd Hail Mary as Kudlow tries to stave off disaster, saying that if truck lanes were kept open, we might avoid economic damage.

Keeping lanes for trucks open might help the automobile industry and agriculture limp along, both of which would be utterly destroyed by a border closure otherwise. The chief policy officer for the Chamber of Commerce, a business lobbying group, pointed out that keeping truck lanes open would “still have negative economic consequences” because “businesses in border communities depend on workers, shoppers, and tourists crossing the border.”

It doesn’t even look like Trump stalwart Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is on board with Trump’s plan. At nearly the same time Trump was bragging about shutting down the border, McConnell said that doing so would have a “potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country” and that he hoped “we would not be doing that sort of thing.”

On the other hand, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is enthusiastically willing to shred the Constitution to prop up Trump’s idea of a border crisis. She went on Tucker Carlson’s show on Tuesday and told Carlson that Trump has “full authority” to defend the country and that talking about closing the border is an example of that.

Then she went one step further and said that getting rid of birthright citizenship  is “on the table.” The citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly guarantees that anyone born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, but that doesn’t matter to Nielsen — or Trump.

Trump’s threat to close the southern border is bad enough. The fact that those around him don’t know what is going on is even worse.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.