Shoot Them in the Legs, Trump Suggested: Inside His Border War
Source: NY Times
By Michael D. Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis
Oct. 1, 2019
WASHINGTON -- The Oval Office meeting this past March began, as so many had, with President Trump fuming about migrants. But this time he had a solution. As White House advisers listened astonished, he ordered them to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico -- by noon the next day.
The advisers feared the president's edict would trap American tourists in Mexico, strand children at schools on both sides of the border and create an economic meltdown in two countries. Yet they also knew how much the president's zeal to stop immigration had sent him lurching for solutions, one more extreme than the next.
Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That's not allowed either, they told him.
"The president was frustrated and I think he took that moment to hit the reset button," said Thomas D. Homan, who had served as Mr. Trump's acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recalling that week in March. "The president wanted it to be fixed quickly."
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/trump-border-wars.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Sick, just atrociously sick.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,841 posts)but singularly inhumane.
Why does anyone with even a crumb of a conscience work for him?
chowder66
(9,067 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)We really can't make it any simpler than that.
Trump is a monster and he is a terrible danger to every family in America.
The Liberal Lion
(1,414 posts)Last edited Wed Oct 2, 2019, 12:48 AM - Edit history (2)
because due to his level of criminality he may soon have the opportunity to live in an environment very similar tp that he proposes for the southern border, JAIL.
Here's a question, would a former (fake) president still be eligible for secret service protection if placed in jail?
gopiscrap
(23,756 posts)The Liberal Lion
(1,414 posts)I forgot to add "...if placed in jail"
muriel_volestrangler
(101,306 posts)His narciccism would go insane without any toadies to brown-nose him. I think he'd be transferred to a secure hospital quickly.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,670 posts)Germany, a first-world country largely populated by educated, sophisticated people, could have so quickly devolved into a dictatorship that treated other human beings with unimaginable cruelty. Now I see it. All you need is a leader who is an unabashed sociopath with no regard for others, supported by people so attracted to power that they turn a blind eye to the leader's most horrendous instincts, et voila...
Hav
(5,969 posts)and that can happen in any country. Once you've made that step, it's easy to stir up hate and accept cruelties to other groups. Thinking in terms of shithole countries or that people are criminals solely based on their origin who will endanger your well-being, for instance.
During my first visit to the US, I was shocked listening to a radio show where the moderator called Democrats vermin, rodent and similar terms because I think this is so dangerous.
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)Fox, Rush... have been displacing blame on minorities, immigrants, libruls, Soros, Clintons,... for decades. Their base has been programmed over the years in front of us. This is why these supporters can still believe Trump despite all of the facts, facts many of them never hear from their media of choice.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,670 posts)The Liberal Lion
(1,414 posts)Growing up and learning about WWII and thereafter learning of German history I pondered this question as well as a youth, namely how could this have happened in the country of "dichter und denker"? This question bothered me so much that not only did I double major in psych and German as an undergrad, but I did my grad work in psych in Germany. Even with that I could never get the answer to this question that had bothered me since the age of eight. Now 41 years later I am beginning to understand the answer to the question. Time is not linear, it's circular.
Thank you for bringing this up.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)1. Inflate a minor crisis into a major cataclysmic one (which is of course interconnected to a few other real crises) requiring drastic action...
2. Make sure some social/ethnic minority is exclusively fingered as a scapegoat and make sure the populace knows just how much better life would be for everyone if the scapegoat minority could be sent to some other country to live, or be erased from existence completely...
Moostache
(9,895 posts)Anyone wanting to know why Germany became what it did under Hitler's insanity needs look no further than your average MAGA hat wearing idiot.
There is no doubt in my mind that there are MILLIONS of awful people who would gladly kill for Trump (as long as the targets are brown people)...
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)He hates most of us and this country just as much, maybe even more.
There is something deeper and darker in Trump than we might imagine. Why? Well, where does that hatred and rage come from?
There is something called a refractory period that usually is the result of an experience that has a strong, emotional charge. Some people are able to eventually recover and the refractory period gives way to more healthy and enjoyable emotions, reactions and behaviors. Others extend that period, sometimes inadvertently, indefinitely, especially if conditions and the personality support. It can be an endless, repetitive loop and even a downward spiral.
The more I learn about this human train wreck, the more I see deeper than aspects of money, power, control and even the personality disorder. This man appears to have a deep-seated and relentless grudge and, with the power of the office, he is enabled to take it out on as many people in as many ways as he can.
In other words, you don't let somebody that dangerous and willfully destructive have access to this kind of power, ever, not to mention nuclear codes. He is a wrathful demon and a threat to mankind. Really.
That concerns me even more, now.
BigmanPigman
(51,584 posts)Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)Good to know.
MrsCheaplaugh
(183 posts)Lib 4 Life
(97 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,769 posts)Shoot children in their legs and you don't need such expensive cages.
Trump plans ahead.
Great optics for his Trumpsters to cheer.
Film at 11:00.
Sarcasm? Not for himself or his followers.
Freedomofspeech
(4,223 posts)Gothmog
(145,126 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,670 posts)are especially expensive because you have to keep replacing the alligators all the time. Alligator jerky, anyone?
crazytown
(7,277 posts)of alligators from Florida to the desert moats!
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)"the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators ...
He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh.
After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks"
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)Vlad the Impaler, (a source for the Dracula myth) would have liked that idea. He had a thing for putting heads on spikes all along road to frighten and demoralize any enemies marching to attack him.
So, that gets 4 Vlads.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,670 posts)He'd probably love heads on spikes.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)He often impaled live people on sharpened poles (you can imagine where he inserted the spike)
and lined the roads to his kingdom with them
to scare off invading troops.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,670 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)the ancient Assyrians, about every period of human history such things were common. Humans have been doing ugliness to other humans for as long as we've existed. I've seen pictures of such atrocities committed even in the last few years in the Middle East.
oldsoftie
(12,530 posts)riversedge
(70,186 posts)Mendocino
(7,486 posts)of shooting people with rock salt during the 67 riots.
Dem2theMax
(9,650 posts)If it does exist, I sure would love to see Ancestry.com compare Hitler's DNA to drumpf's. I bet they would get a match. A very close match.
George II
(67,782 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,769 posts)Trump said his daddy was born in Germany
George II
(67,782 posts)...and Germany didn't exist until 1871.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)of being German?
Also why they changed the name from Drumpf to Trump ... do I remember incorrectly?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,306 posts)John Walter, a Trump family historian and one of Donald Trump's cousins, said this was an effort to not offend his Jewish customers.
"He said, 'You don't sell apartments after the war if you're German,'?" Walter said in the Boston Globe article. "So he's Swedish, no problem."
Even after World War II, Fred Trump continued to claim he was Swedish, according to Walter.
Walter declined to comment to CNN on the family's heritage when reached by phone on Tuesday. CNN also has reached out to the White House for comment.
In his book, "The Art of the Deal," Donald Trump reaffirmed the myth of his family's origins, writing that his father's father came to America "from Sweden as a child."
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politics/trump-family-heritage/index.html
For money, basically. And Donald continued the lie.
a kennedy
(29,646 posts)NoMoreRepugs
(9,410 posts)I have ABSOLUTELY zero respect for any imbecile who supports him, my family and friends included.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)I can't wait for them to impeach the MF!
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Javaman
(62,517 posts)Pachamama
(16,886 posts)gopiscrap
(23,756 posts)he is such a god damn embarrassment to this country
Generic Brad
(14,274 posts)Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)Blue Owl
(50,349 posts)I can't take another minute of him...
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)And the Fundies support him. Armageddon for America.
area51
(11,905 posts)meadowlander
(4,394 posts)paying for a stable full of White House aides to explain to the President of the United States that building a 2000 mile moat stocked with alligators is a bad idea.
Kablooie
(18,625 posts)That's as long as a trench from Los Angeles to Chicago or New York to Denver all filled with billions of alligators and snakes.
That's the kind of defense I would have thought up in the 5th grade.
TomVilmer
(1,832 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,306 posts)He's said to want revenge, and this is not the image the military-industrial conservatives want.
George II
(67,782 posts)Chemisse
(30,808 posts)It's not going to work this time around. The chickens have come home to roost.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)This is the office of the president, folks...
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)will either defend this as the legit thoughts of a rational mind or laugh it off as "Trump being Trump the lovable renegade" as we continue to fall into the abyss of fascism....