So let’s assume that Donald Trump gets the Republican presidential nomination, which is probable, and that he is elected President, which is possible. How would he carry out his promises?
Consider his vow to build a wall between the United States and Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants, and, furthermore, to make Mexico pay for it. The government of Mexico has said, defiantly, that there is no way they would pay for a wall. Trump responded that he would therefore make it ten feet higher.
(My brother says that Mexico would indeed build a wall and pay for it in order to keep out the hordes of Americans who would flee the country if Donald Trump were elected President. My sister said that she heard that joke from Jimmy Fallon. My brother said that while that might be, he came up with it independently.)
But how would President Trump make Mexico pay for the wall?
Would he use a military threat? Would he say that Mexico must pay $3 billion, or whatever the price tag would be, he will bomb Juarez?
Even if he were to bomb Juarez, that would be unlikely to cause Mexico to cough up the money. It would become a matter of honor, and anyone whose country is attacked in that way would rather die that give in to such naked aggression.
It would be more feasible to confiscate Mexican assets in this country, which surely would amount to enough to build a wall. That would, of course, be stealing, and thus illegal. The U.S. government could impose sanctions on Mexico, though that would require congressional action. But even if President Trump could get Congress to do his bidding, sanctions against another country at the most would involve freezing its assets. Not taking them and spending them.
If President Trump would try to do this by sheer Executive power, it would still require the co-operation of countless bankers and other financial operatives, who would put themselves in legal jeopardy if they complied.
If he could, however, confiscate Mexican property and funds–something ironically associated with Latin American socialist dictatorships that “nationalize” American holdings in their countries–that would surely trigger international sanctions against the United States. If foreign investment and markets were shut off and trade barriers erected against American goods (which would admittedly tie in to Trump’s goal of protectionism), it would be devastating to our economy.
Some are saying that Trump is just practicing “the art of the deal,” staking out extreme demands as a way to moderate them in the course of negotiation. But building a wall and making Mexico pay for it is a specific, trademark stand for Trump. If he doesn’t achieve it, the voters who think he is the only one who tells the truth will consider him a “loser.”
So how is it even theoretically possible to fulfill this promise without negative, though unintended consequences?
We should undertake a similar thought experiment for Trump’s other promises.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In