Donald Trump to send the National Guard to the Mexican border, but nobody really knows why.

Courtesy of Time:

The Trump administration says it is working with governors to “immediately” deploy the National Guard to combat illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Wednesday that DHS and the Pentagon will be working closely with governors in the affected states. 

She says that deployment will be done as expeditiously as possible and that Guard troops could begin heading to the border as soon as Wednesday night. 

Trump announced his plan to send the military to the border during a meeting with Baltic leaders Tuesday. 

Trump has been frustrated by Congress’ refusal to fund building a wall along the length of the U.S. border as well as an increase in illegal border crossings.

Border crossings are down significantly,  which was also true during Obama's second term, so what exactly is the excuse for sending the national Guard, at a huge cost to taxpayers, to the Mexican border?

Some suggest that Trump is simply irritated that Ann Coulter is calling him out on Twitter.

But if that is true than this decision clearly did nothing to change that.

Are they going to shoot the illegals? Just standing there doesn't do a thing. We need to do what Israel does: immediate detention and removal. https://t.co/byXxDbG2po

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) April 4, 2018

That's right to make the Crypt Keeper's daughter happy you actually have to murder immigrants coming across the border.

There are those arguing that this is nothing new and that both George W. Bush and Barack Obama sent the National Guard to the border.

This is technically true, but the circumstances were different:

Amid a series of protests on both sides of the immigration debate, President Bush sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border in 2006. The troops were deployed to aid U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while new recruits were being trained and help with the installation of fences and vehicle barriers. They were not, however sent to directly engage in law enforcement activities.

“The United States is not going to militarize the southern border,” Bush said at the time. “Mexico is our neighbor, and our friend. We will continue to work cooperatively to improve security on both sides of the border … to confront common problems like drug trafficking and crime … and to reduce illegal immigration.”

And then during Obama's first term:  

President Barack Obama authorized 1,200 National Guard troops be sent to the Southern Border two years after Jump Start ended in 2010. According to a 2010 report from the New York Times, Obama was facing pressure from lawmakers to boost security at the southern border after a prominent rancher was allegedly killed by a smuggler. During what was known as Operation Phalanx, which lasted about a year, some 14,000 pounds of drugs were seized and 7,000 people were apprehended.

In 2011, the head of Arizona’s National Guard told the Washington Post that his soldiers primarily served as “eyes and ears” at the border. “We don’t chase anybody,” said Maj. Gen. Hugo E. Salazar.

The combined cost of those operations to the taxpayers was a whopping 1.35 billion, and the evidence suggests that neither one made a significant difference.

Bush's seemed to be a show of force to please his supporters, while Obama was more or less boxed in by the death of that rancher.

Trump's decision really appears to be more of a tantrum about not getting his wall than anything else. 

His overriding directive seems to be that if Congress will not let him waste taxpayer money building an unnecessary wall, then dammit he will waste taxpayer money sending the National Guard to the border instead.

Well, Donald Trump has pissed off Mexico again.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Tentative plans for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to make his first visit to the White House to meet with President Trump were scuttled this week after a testy call between the two leaders ended in an impasse over Trump’s promised border wall, according to U.S. and Mexican officials. 

Peña Nieto was eyeing an official trip to Washington this month or in March, but both countries agreed to call off the plan after Trump would not agree to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund construction of a border wall that the Mexican people widely consider offensive, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential conversation. 

Speaking by phone on Tuesday, Peña Nieto and Trump devoted a considerable portion of their roughly 50 minute conversation to the wall, and neither man would compromise his position. 

One Mexican official said Trump “lost his temper.” But U.S. officials described him instead as being frustrated and exasperated, saying Trump believed it was unreasonable for Peña Nieto to expect him to back off his crowd-pleasing campaign promise of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall. 

Both accounts confirm it was Peña Nieto’s desire to avoid public embarrassment — and Trump’s unwillingness to provide that assurance — that proved to be the dealbreaker.

So the President of Mexico does not want to come here, the British do not want Donald Trump to go there, and the Germans are actively mocking Trump in their parades.

But hey, at least Trump is best buddies with Vladimir Putin, right?

He's got my vote.

.@VicenteFoxQue is the president America needs. pic.twitter.com/to2e4QWUyk

— Super Deluxe (@superdeluxe) September 7, 2017

Vicente had me when he described Trump as a "worn out baseball glove tightly gripping a turd."

That is the kind of speechifying which just inspires support.

Dreamer dies trying to rescue people during Texas flood, his Mexican born mother will not be allowed to attend his funeral.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Alonso Guillen came to the U.S. from Mexico as a child. He died here, too: On Wednesday, he disappeared when his boat capsized while he was rescuing survivors of the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area. 

Family members recovered his body on Sunday from a creek in Spring, Texas, according to The Houston Chronicle ― just hours before reports emerged that President Donald Trump will end the program that shielded Guillen and others like him ― so-called Dreamers ― from deportation. 

Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey who came to Texas from Mexico as a teenager, never became a U.S. citizen. But he had a work permit and protection from immediate deportation as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program ― DACA ― that then-President Barack Obama established in 2012. 

Last week, he headed south from his home in Lufkin, Texas, with a borrowed boat, insisting he wanted to help rescue flood survivors. His father, a legal permanent resident, wept on the sandy banks of Cypress Creek on Sunday as his son’s body was pulled from the water, the Chronicle reported. Jesus Guillen recounted to the paper how he asked his son not to go on the rescue mission with two friends, and that he thanked God for the time he had with his son. 

As Law Newz reports Guillen's mother will not be allowed to cross the border in order to attend her son's funeral:  

While Guillen’s father is a legal permanent resident of the United States, his mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillen is currently applying for legal status here–and unable to cross the border in order to bury her son. 

She had hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would be understanding of the situation and issue a humanitarian visa so she could properly mourn, but her request was denied and the grieving 62-year-old was sent back to Me exico after reaching the U.S. border. She said, through tears: 

“I’ve lost a great son, you have no idea. I’m asking God to give me strength. When we are with God, there are no borders. Man made borders on this earth.”

I'm sorry, putting politics aside where at least is the compassion for this grieving mother? 

I mean what are they afraid she will do, leave the funeral, disappear into the crowd, and then immediately start stealing American's jobs?

Mexico reiterates yet again that they are NOT paying for that border wall no matter what Donald Trump says.

With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

Courtesy of CNN:

The Mexican government on Sunday again stressed its position that it will not pay for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall. 

Trump tweeted Sunday morning: "With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other.

"In response, the country's foreign ministry released a statement saying Mexico would not pay for a wall or other physical barrier at the border "under any circumstances." 

"This determination is not part of a Mexican negotiating strategy, but a principle of national sovereignty and dignity," the statement said.

You know I work with young people who have behavioral and cognitive difficulties.

You have to keep repeating yourself to them all the time as well.

It seems weird that Trump keeps claiming that Mexico will pay for this wall, while at the same time trying to force Congress to pony up the money to start construction.

What is his plan here? Is he going to push Congress into allocating funds for the wall, and then send Mexico the receipt for reimbursement?

Because if we think Mexico is laughing at us now, just wait.

CNN's Brooke Baldwin lists all of the crazy things that have happened with Trump in the last four weeks.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

“Steve Bannon has been fired,” Baldwin said. “It has been a chaotic four weeks, even by these White House standards, so let’s just all take a moment just to remind you what has happened, incredibly significant events, one after the other.” 

“So, in no particular order,” she began. “President Trump … fires his chief strategist, fires his chief of staff, hires a new one, hires a new communications director, fires him, hires a new one, his fourth in seven months, publicly shames his attorney general multiple times, loses a health care bill, publicly shames the three republicans who voted against it multiple times, bans transgender individuals from the military without telling the military, ticks off the Boy Scouts, makes up a phone call with said Scouts, makes up another phone call with the president of Mexico, thanks Vladimir Putin for expelling Americans, hundreds of them, takes days to sign a bipartisan sanctions bill and then blasts Congress for making him sign it, condemns leaks but then says he likes the leaks because it shows people love him.”

Baldwin then stops for a drink of water, before continuing:

“Encourages police to be rough with suspects during arrests, publicly shames the Republican leader he needs to get anything done—multiple times—embraces an unpassable immigration plan that sparks a debate about the Statue of Liberty and the definition of ‘cosmopolitan.’ He threatens North Korea with nuclear war, tells Guam it will help tourism, then his own chief strategist calls his bluff and says, no, there’s no military option in North Korea, threatens Venezuela with a military option, after a Nazi rally in which someone was murdered, the president blames both sides. After backlash, cleans it up, denounces those white supremacists, but then hours later erases all of it and makes everything worse by again blaming both sides, saying there were fine people there. No, they weren’t. They were Nazis.”

Whew!

Keep in mind that President Obama went through EIGHT YEARS in office without anywhere near this much chaos and drama in his White House.

God, Trump was right. All of this winning IS exhausting.

Transcripts reveal that during his first phone call to the Mexican President Donald Trump begged him to stop saying that Mexico would not pay for his wall.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump made building a wall along the southern U.S. border and forcing Mexico to pay for it core pledges of his campaign. 

But in his first White House call with Mexico’s president, Trump described his vow to charge Mexico as a growing political problem, pressuring the Mexican leader to stop saying publicly that his government would never pay. 

“You cannot say that to the press,” Trump said repeatedly, according to a transcript of the Jan. 27 call obtained by The Washington Post. Trump made clear that he realized the funding would have to come from other sources but threatened to cut off contact if Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto continued to make defiant statements. 

The funding “will work out in the formula somehow,” Trump said, adding later that “it will come out in the wash, and that is okay.” But “if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

(Of course ultimately Trump had to live with that because the wall is now supposedly being paid for by the American taxpayers.)

In the actual transcripts President Nieto made a rather salient point that Trump seems to have glossed over:  

And let me tell you that a lot of what is happening in terms of traffickers in Mexico is being largely supported by the illegal amounts of money and weapons coming from the United States.

What seems to be lost in Trump's rhetoric is that the border crossings go both ways, and that the money and illegal guns being smuggled into Mexico are at least as big a problem for them, and Mexican drugs are for us.

Trump also made this admission:

Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important talk about. 

In other words Trump had painted himself into a corner with his braggadocio and he was begging President Nieto to help him save face.

However believe it or not this was not the most difficult call that Trump would make to a foreign leader: 

The Jan. 28 call with Turnbull became particularly acrimonious. “I have had it,” Trump erupted after the two argued about an agreement on refugees. “I have been making these calls all day, and this is the most unpleasant call all day.” 

Apparently Trump got his shorts in bunch over the idea of accepting refugees into the country:

“This is going to kill me,” he said to Turnbull. “I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people.” 

(Actually the number was 1,250 that President Obama had agreed to take to help alleviate the suffering of his fellow human beings who had been displaced by war and persecution.)

“I hate taking these people,” Trump said. “I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people” 

Turnbull tried to salvage the deal, noting that the detainees were economic refugees who had not been accused of crimes. He explained that they were being denied entry into Australia because of a policy aimed at discouraging human smuggling. 

“There is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal,” Turnbull said. “You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.” 

Trump only became angrier, saying the refugees could “become the Boston bomber in five years.” 

“I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made,” Trump said. “As far as I am concerned, that is enough, Malcolm. I have had it.” 

With that Trump abruptly ended the call. But not before telling the Australian Prime Minister who he DID enjoy talking with.

Before ending the call, Trump noted that at least one of his conversations that day had gone far more smoothly. “Putin was a pleasant call,” Trump said, referring to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin. “This is ridiculous.”

Keep in mind, before anybody calls this fake news, that this is from the White House's own transcripts which were leaked to the Post.

So yes America, THAT is the guy who is now leading this country.

Paul Ryan does a macho man cosplay in order to convince morons the Republicans are serious about building a border wall.

RT if you agree→ It is time for The Wall. pic.twitter.com/s5MO8SG7SL

— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) August 1, 2017

Damn, when it comes to failed attempts to appear manly I swear Paul Ryan has no rival.

I mean really.

Let's face it you Howdy Doody looking mother fucker, THERE IS NOT GOING TO BE ANY WALL!

Sure somebody is going to dig some post holes, and undoubtedly somebody will do a little surveying, but ultimately the wall has about as much chance of materializing as Paul Ryan's balls have of finally dropping and allowing him to reach puberty.

Trump takes to Twitter to threaten Democrats over Obamacare and to cryptically suggest that the Mexicans will pay for his wall "in some form."

ObamaCare is in serious trouble. The Dems need big money to keep it going - otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Translation: "Nice health care program you have there Liberals. Be a shame if something happened to it."

By the way Obamacare is NOT in "serious trouble," but that does not mean Trump can't manipulate things until it actually is in serious trouble. 

Trump then ties the possible loss of this "big money" to his pet project.

The Democrats don't want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

I think the message here is pretty clear as well, "Give me money for this ridiculous wall I promised to build or I will allow possibly thousands of people to die without access to adequate health care."

In his next tweet Trump suggests that he has a plan to make the Mexicans ultimately pay for the wall.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

So to sum up Trump will take health care away from potentially millions of people in order to force the Democrats to give him money to start a project, that ultimately he plans to make the Mexican government pay for.

But how?

Well that is where old Beauregard Sessions come in.

Courtesy of Politico:

Speaking on ABC’s "This Week," Sessions weighed in on the fight over funding for the wall, which is becoming part of the high-stakes negotiations between the White House and Congress over keeping the government funded after Friday.

“We're going to get paid for it one way or the other,” Sessions said of the wall. “I know there's $4 billion a year in excess payments, according to the Department of the Treasury's own inspector general several years ago, that are going to payments to people — tax credits that they shouldn't get. Now, these are mostly Mexicans. And those kind of things add up — $4 billion a year for 10 years is $40 billion.

"There are a lot of ways we can find money to help pay for this.”

Okay so first the IRS would have to determine who is not authorized to work in the United States, and then somehow get them to give back 4 billion in undeserved tax credits?

And THAT seems like a workable plan?

Sessions also claimed to have a plan for getting the Mexican government to reimburse the US for that down payment:

"We're going to get it paid for one way or the other," Sessions said on ABC's "This Week" when asked if there is any evidence Mexico will pay for the wall. 

He said he doesn't expect the Mexican government to "appropriate money" for the wall, but added there are ways "we can deal with our trade situation to create the revenue to pay for it." 

Yeah that's almost as well thought out as that tax refund plan. 

Here's what is actually going to happen.

The Democrats will NOT be bullied into approving a budget that pays for Trump's wall, and the Mexican government will NOT be bullied into paying for Trump's wall, and the undocumented workers in his country will NOT be bullied into paying for Trump's wall.

In short nobody is paying for Trump's wall.

But hey, he's supposed to be rich. Maybe he can simply pay for it himself?

So yesterday Donald Trump hung up on the Australian prime minister and threatened to invade Mexico. How was your Wednesday? Update!

First this from CNN: 

During the US President's call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Saturday, Trump objected to an agreement over the US receiving refugees, sources told CNN. All this a day after a call with Mexico's President, where a transcript showed Trump complaining about Mexico's "handling" of "tough hombres." 

Australia is an ally of the United States, with the two countries joining three other English-speaking countries in an intelligence sharing arrangement known as the "Five Eyes."

The disagreement came as the two leaders discussed an agreement, reached under the Obama administration, for the US to accept refugees from Australia who are living on islands in detention centers off the mainland due to strict government policies.

Sources say Trump insisted it was a very bad deal for the US to take 2,000 refugees and that one of them was going to be the next Boston bomber. 

Turnbull told Trump several times the agreement was for 1,250 refugees, not 2,000. He also said Australia was asking to submit them to the US for refugee screening, and if the refugees did not pass the US screening process, they would not come.

Ultimately Trump ended the call in frustration, and then later tweeted this out:

Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017

Once again, it is not "thousands" but rather 1,250.

But get this, that was not even the worst of Trump's phone calls with our allies.

Courtesy of the AP:  

President Donald Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S. troops to stop "bad hombres down there" unless the Mexican military does more to control them itself, according to an excerpt of a transcript of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press. 

"You have a bunch of bad hombres down there," Trump told Pena Nieto, according to the excerpt given to AP. "You aren't doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn't, so I just might send them down to take care of it." 

A person with access to the official transcript of the phone call provided only that portion of the conversation to The Associated Press. The person gave it on condition of anonymity because the administration did not make the details of the call public.

Both the Mexican government and the Trump administration tried to do a little  damage control, however this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast Trump made these remarks: 

"The world is in trouble, but we're going to straighten it out, OK? That's what I do - I fix things," Trump said after saying that freedom of religion was threatened. 

"Believe me, when you hear about the tough phone calls I'm having - don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it," he said.

"We're taken advantage of by every nation in the world virtually. It's not going to happen anymore," he said.

Actually I think I WILL worry about it. Quite a lot actually.

Remember these are FRIENDLY nations, just try to imagine how Trump is talking to countries that we don't consider allies.

Update: If you are looking for a leak concerning Trump's conversation with Putin, well you are unlikely to ever see that.

.@ilanberman: "there was no readout of the Trump-Putin call bc WH turned off recording" - Kremlin readout is very positive @BPC_Bipartisan pic.twitter.com/oi4v1R5dN0

— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) February 1, 2017

Oops!

President of Mexico tells Donald Trump to build his own damn wall. Trumpo responds like the child that he is.

Courtesy of CNN:

"Mexico does not believe in walls. I've said time again; Mexico will not pay for any wall," he said in a video statement posted to Twitter and translated by CNN from Spanish.

 Trump's response was of course all too predictable.

The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017

of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017

Holy shitballs!

So Donald Trump's vaunted negotiating technique boils down to "You do what I want or I will not invite you to my birthday party?"

President Nieto did in fact cancel his upcoming meeting with Trump, however earlier today Trump tried to spin it that the cancellation was mutually decided.

Anybody buy that?

I think our new question about Trump is to ask if there is any test of leadership that he WON'T fail?

Donald Trump takes credit for keeping American jobs from moving to Mexico. Except they weren't moving to Mexico.

Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky - no Mexico

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2016

I worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky. I owed it to the great State of Kentucky for their confidence in me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2016

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

President-elect Donald J. Trump claimed credit on Thursday night for persuading Ford to keep an automaking plant in Kentucky rather than moving it to Mexico. The only wrinkle: Ford was not actually planning to move the plant. 

Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter shortly after 9 p.m. that Ford’s chairman, William Clay Ford Jr., had just told him that Ford “will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky — no Mexico.” 

Minutes later, Mr. Trump wrote in a second post: “I worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky. I owed it to the great State of Kentucky for their confidence in me!” Mr. Trump won 62.5 percent of the state’s popular vote in the presidential election.

But Ford had not planned to close the Louisville factory. Instead, it had planned to expand production of another vehicle made in Louisville, the Ford Escape. And the change had not been expected to result in any job losses. 

“Whatever happens in Louisville, it will not lose employment,” Jimmy Settles, a union official, told The Detroit Free Press. “They cannot make enough Escapes.”

So apparently Trump's version of "I worked hard" means that he worked hard to make up to make himself look good.

This is our new norm by the way.

Donald Trump will tells some ridiculous lie, the press will report on it, and it will make mo difference whatsoever because the only people who will read it are people who still respect journalism, and that does NOT include Trump supporters.

And why would they?

After all Trump himself has told them that you cannot trust the press to cover him fairly.

Wow, the @nytimes is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the "Trump phenomena"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2016

I guess if facts have a liberal bias, then it behooves a conservative to dismiss them out of hand.

Which leaves Donald Trump free to shape reality as he sees fit, and leaves the press with little if any ability to correct him.

Welcome to Donald Trump's America.

Well Donald Trump's visit to Mexico was sure a success. If by success you mean they might go to war with us.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

While Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump might have taken a victory lap after his meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, those south of the U.S. border are not. 

Finance Minister Luis Videgaray resigned Wednesday, after backlash from the invitation to Trump to meet with Peña Nieto. Now, Mexican Senator Armando Rios Piter is proposing legislation that could put Mexico in conflict with the United States. 

“It was a historic error for our president to invite a person like that to our country. [Mr Trump] used us as a campaign tool,” the senator told the Telegraph. 

In the past, Trump has threatened to cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), claiming it was bad policy that hurt the U.S. manufacturing industry. If Trump were to do this, however, Piter’s bill would trigger a review and possible cancelation of all of the bilateral agreements between Mexico and the U.S. 

The bill Piter is proposing would specifically cancel the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and ceded Texas and California as well as parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming to the U.S. if Trump cancels NAFTA. 

“The goal is to foresee and prevent any negative effects on Mexico if Trump becomes president of the United States,” he said.

So Trump visits one foreign country as a candidate for president and politicians in that country now want to end a war treaty with us?

I can only imagine the kinds of damage he would do if he were actually the Commander-in-Chief.

We could literally end up in war with the entire world.

Except Russia of course. Trump loves Russia.

The folks at Funny or Die have translated what the President of Mexico was "really" saying during that press conference with Donald Trump.

I know this is comedy, but I would not be surprised to learn that this is not a fairly close translation to what President Nieto was thinking during that press conference, even if he did not say it out loud.

The majority of Americans do not believe Donald Trump's BS about a border wall.

Courtesy of ABC News: 

ABC News together with our partners at SSRS survey research firm asked our online opinion panel if they believed Trump would be able to get Mexico to pay for building a wall along the U.S. southern border.

Seventy-eight percent said they believed Trump could not deliver on this promise, while 13 percent said he could. 

Asked to give a one-word response to a video of one part of Trump's highly anticipated immigration speech last week, 67 percent reacted with a negative word, such as “ridiculous” and “disgusting.” Just 27 percent responded with a positive word, such as “great” and “agree.”

I wonder if that 78% also realizes that Trump is full of horse pucky when it comes to the reason why he will not release his tax returns?

Courtesy of Think Progress:

It’s worth noting that the existence of an audit, according to the IRS, does not preclude the release of tax returns. In fact, it actually makes the release of returns less risky. The primary issue with making your tax returns public is triggering an audit. Trump doesn’t have to be worried about that. 

But there is a bigger problem with the Trump campaign’s argument that all his returns are under audit: It’s not true. 

The truth is disclosed in a letter from his accountants that was published to the Trump campaign website in March. It reveals that Trump’s returns from 2008 and prior are not under audit and have been “administratively closed” by the IRS.

So when Trump and his campaign staff say they are not releasing his taxes because they are under audit, that’s not true. None of his taxes from 2008 or prior are currently under audit, and yet Trump still hasn’t released those returns.

So for those of you who have recently been in a coma, Donald Trump essentially lies about EVERYTHING.

And it appears that perhaps the American voters are coming to recognize that fact.

Finally.

Yes, and they adored him so much that they honored him by stuffing his "statues" full of delicious candies.

Actually according to a California representative they sold out of the Trump pinatas in her state:

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) reminded (Boris) Epshteyn that Trump had called Mexicans rapists, murderers and drug dealers. 

“That’s not correct,” Epshteyn insisted. 

“It is not leadership to demonize a community, to bash them verbally, to use venomous rhetoric to incite people sometimes to violence against a community,” Sanchez remarked. “And then accept an invitation and somehow think that everything is going to be forgiven.” 

“I just want to warn the GOP of one thing,” the California Democrat said. “In Los Angeles County — and I don’t know what polls you’re looking at, sir — but in L.A. County, you cannot get your hands on a Trump piñata because they are sold out and they’re on back order. And for every child that has taken a whack at a Trump piñata, that’s a voter that the GOP has lost for a lifetime. They are not going to forget that.”

Yep the Latino community in America and Mexico certainly have strong feelings concerning Donald Trump alright.

However if I were working on his security detail I might discourage him from walking through certain Hispanic communities, as you can never tell when a stick wielding mob might rush out to see what comes out of his tubby orange ass when you start hitting him.

Donald Trump traveled to Mexico to meet with President Nieto and this is the only important take away. Update!

"We did not discuss that; we did not discuss who pays for the wall." - Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/W2ntGa8xcJ

— Correct The Record (@CorrectRecord) August 31, 2016

That's right loud mouth Trump traveled all the way across that scary border and he was too chickenshit to bring up his signature campaign promise.

And oh, is he being excoriated over it.

BREAKING: TRUMP TOO SCARED OF THE LITTLE PRESIDENT OF MEXICO TO ASK MEXICO TO PAY FOR WALL

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) August 31, 2016

Trump asks the crowd at nearly every rally: "Who's going to pay for the wall??"

Crowd: "MEXICO!"

Trump: "Mexico."https://t.co/iztd0RnK3A

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) August 31, 2016

"Who pays for the wall? We didn't discuss."
How do you say "sell out" in Spanish?#Trump

— EJ Dionne (@EJDionne) August 31, 2016

.@realDonaldTrump in Mexico: We didn’t discuss the wall payment https://t.co/KAj1Mv0NEg https://t.co/DmpCUTUIav

— POLITICO (@politico) August 31, 2016

Now we all just to have to sit back and wait to see how he misrepresents this in his speech about immigration tonight. Cause you know he will.

But even before he does that his visit is already causing serious political repercussions for his host: 

If President Enrique Peña Nieto invited Donald J. Trump to visit Mexico for a dialogue in the interest of democracy, the message has fallen on deaf ears. 

Instead, the predominant feeling here in the Mexican capital is one of betrayal. 

“It’s a historic error,” said Enrique Krauze, a well-known historian. “You confront tyrants, you don’t appease them.” 

On Mexico’s most popular morning television show on Wednesday, a livid Mr. Krauze likened the president’s meeting with Mr. Trump to the decision by Neville Chamberlain, then the British prime minister, to sit down with Hitler in Munich in 1938. 

“It isn’t brave to meet in private with somebody who has insulted and denigrated” Mexicans, Mr. Krauze said. “It isn’t dignified to simply have a dialogue.”

Damn it looks like Trump may have contracted the Palin curse, in that everything he touches will now turn to shit.

Gee I wonder how his opponents on the other side of the aisle are viewing Trump's visit to Mexico.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Update: Try not to be too surprised that Trump lied about his discussions concerning the wall.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Donald Trump flew into a nation he has constantly berated during his campaign to meet President Enrique Peña Nieto and said they discussed a wall he has vowed to build on the US's southern border, but not his demand that Mexico pay for it -- an assertion the Mexican president later disputed. 

"At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall," Peña Nieto tweeted, after their meeting Wednesday.

Proof positive that Trump only talks tough on Twitter and in front of sympathetic crowds.

Behind the scenes he is a milquetoast little panty waist.  

Hillary Clinton is going to eat his lunch for him.

Donald Trump is going to visit with the President of Mexico today. Oh this should go well.

I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2016

Courtesy of CNN: 

Donald Trump is traveling to Mexico Wednesday to meet with the country's president just hours before he is set to deliver a speech focused on immigration policy.

"I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow," the Republican presidential nominee tweeted Tuesday. The office of the Mexican President confirmed in a tweet late Tuesday night that Trump had accepted Peña Nieto's invitation and that the two will meet privately.

As it turns out President Nieto sent an invitation to both Clinton and Trump. So far Trump is the only one to have accepted.

I imagine that Hillary is sitting back like the rest of us to watch this debacle unfold.

However she has been sending out tweets just to remind Mexico of just who is creeping across their border today.

"From the first days of his campaign, Donald Trump has painted Mexicans as 'rapists' and criminals." pic.twitter.com/kwu8TJynrM

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 31, 2016

A big, beautiful list of literally every tweet Donald Trump has sent about Mexico over the last two years. https://t.co/WCKL7oNdpg

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 31, 2016

Isn't she helpful?

Already the former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, has expressed his displeasure with this visit. And he is not alone.

 I imagine that right about now members of Trump's Secret Service detail are strapping bullet proof vests on over their bullet proof vests and calling their families to tell them they love them and to remember them fondly.

As for Trump he is probably preparing in his typical fashion.

I don't want anything to happen to the bloated orange buffoon, I really don't.

But you have to admit that it would be karmic if anything were to happen.

Donald Trump sees plane, predicts invasion from Mexico. And that is not even the craziest new thing we are learning about the presumptive GOP presidential candidate.

Video: Trump sees a plane overhead, says "That could be a Mexican plane up there—they’re getting ready to attack." https://t.co/ryWXqnrMgx

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 30, 2016

Sure I think it's safe to assume that Trump was joking, but WHY would he make such an inflammatory joke in front of an audience of paint chip eaters who are more than ready to overreact to every conspiracy theory that tumbles out of his tangerine colored maw?

Or did I just answer my own question?

In other Trump news of the weird it appears that the Donald likes to listen to the private phone conversations of his employees.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed: 

At Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach resort he runs as a club for paying guests and celebrities, Donald Trump had a telephone console installed in his bedroom that acted like a switchboard, connecting to every phone extension on the estate, according to six former workers. Several of them said he used that console to eavesdrop on calls involving staff.

Oh yeah, this is one of those times that you hear a rumor about somebody and just KNOW that it's true.

I have absolutely NO problem accepting that Trump spied on his employees and listened to their phone calls.

Speaking of stories that one should take seriously, the same applies to those rape charges recently filed against Trump: 

No outsider can say whether Mr. Trump is innocent or guilty of these new rape charges. But we can look at his record, analyze the court filings here, and make a determination as to credibility - whether the allegations are believable enough for us to take them seriously and investigate them, keeping in mind his denial and reporting new facts as they develop. 

I have done that. And the answer is a clear “yes.” These allegations are credible. They ought not be ignored. Mainstream media, I’m looking at you.

Gee, I can hardly wait until the next time that Trump decides to accuse Bill Clinton of assaulting women.

In other news, which is not quite as stomach churning, but just barely, it appears that we now know who Trump is vetting for his VP slot: 

Donald Trump’s campaign has begun formally vetting possible running mates, with former House speaker Newt Gingrich emerging as the leading candidate, followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. But there are more than a half dozen others being discussed as possibilities, according to several people with knowledge of the process. 

Given Trump’s unpredictability, campaign associates caution that the presumptive Republican nominee could still shake up his shortlist. But with little more than two weeks before the start of the Republican National Convention, Gingrich and Christie have been asked to submit documents and are being cast as favorites for the post inside the campaign. Gingrich in particular is the beneficiary of a drumbeat of support from Trump confidants such as Ben Carson.

There are other names being bandied about as well including Joni Ernst, Jeff Sessions, Bob Corker, Mary Fallin, John Thune, and Tom Cotton.

Sarah Palin's name does not seem to be on the list, however since this vetting is being conducted by Arthur B. Culvahouse, the same genius who cleared her as McCain's VP choice in 2008, I guess anything is possible.

At this point it really does not make any difference who Trump chooses to take the trip to the bottom of the icy deaths along with his campaign, as his chances of winning are getting slimmer and slimmer with each passing day.

So Donald Trump is now in a war of words with the most popular Pope in a generation. Is THIS finally a step too far for "the Donald?"

So apparently the Pope had some things to say about Donald Trump during his visit to Mexico.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Inserting himself into the Republican presidential race, Pope Francis on Wednesday suggested that Donald J. Trump “is not Christian” because of the harshness of his campaign promises to deport more immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the border. 

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico.

Ouch!

Well Trump is a reasonable fellow so I am sure he will be....what's that, he attacked the Pope on Facebook?

Courtesy of Trump-book:

In response to the Pope: 

If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians. 

The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the United States, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story - he didn’t see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. He doesn’t see how Mexican leadership is outsmarting President Obama and our leadership in every aspect of negotiation. 

For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant. 

Donald J. Trump

Is Trump encouraging an ISIS attack on the Vatican here?

Because THAT is kind of how this sounds.

Okay now come on, Trump cannot really take on Pope Francis like this and not lose at least SOME of his support, right?