Donald Trump, currently pretending at being president between TV-watching sessions, told the Spanish government that in order to stop migration across the Mediterranean they should build a wall.
Across the Sahara desert.
As in, across the entire Sahara desert.
According to Josep Borrell, the US president brushed off the scepticism of Spanish diplomats – who pointed out that the Sahara stretched for 3,000 miles – saying: “The Sahara border can’t be bigger than our border with Mexico.” [...]
Borrell’s comments were made at a lunch event in Madrid this week and widely reported in the Spanish media. “We can confirm that’s what the minister said, but we won’t be making any further comment on the minister’s remarks,” said a spokesman for the foreign ministry.
There are, ahem, several problems with this plan. The first is that Spain does not own the Sahara desert, which spans numerous African nations that are, despite what Donald may have learned from Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, Not Spain. The second is that despite Donald Trump not believing it, 3,000 miles is in fact "bigger" than the U.S.-Mexico border, which is less than 2,000 miles. The third is that the vast majority of European migrants are coming from the Middle East, which is a measurable distance from the Sahara desert to begin with, and so a completed wall across even a vast portion of Africa would play an at best ancillary role in deterring refugees fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The fourth is that Donald is an idiot. The fifth, sixth, and seventh are also that Donald is an idiot.
The eighth is that Donald is an idiot and his blurted-out proposal is so stupid that it may, in fact, have had serious health consequences for any Spanish or U.S. diplomats forced to listen to it; it is extremely likely that the United States is now, at the very least, going to get a bill in the mail for the necessary counseling sessions provided to any Spanish diplomat in the room when Donald’s word-hole erupted on this one.
His presidential suggestion is to build a wall. Across the Sahara desert.