Archived Opinion

It’s ‘Trump first’ for Republican Party

It’s ‘Trump first’ for Republican Party

To the Editor:

The Republican complaints about the southern border are just political theater. When presented with a bipartisan bill with billions of dollars for border personnel and enhanced infrastructure along with policies they say they want, they block the bill.

They blocked a bill that gave them virtually everything they wanted because Donald Trump told them to block the bill. Trump did not want the bill to pass because he thought doing something meaningful about the border would hurt his chances for election.

The simple fact is that Trump and the Republicans are more interested in power and winning elections than in solving any part of the border issues. The “build the wall” and other talking points are more important to Republicans than actually doing anything.

This is not the first time we have seen this hypocrisy. In 2017 Trump was in the White House and Republicans controlled both the House and Senate. Did they do anything about the border? Of course not. 

In 2018, a bipartisan bill was put together to provide some funding for “the wall” and for more personnel and realistic border security measures. Trump said he would not support the bill, so Mitch McConnell refused to put the bill up for a vote in the Senate.

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The bottom line is that Trump and Republicans want to campaign on the border, but they don’t want to fix anything. They just want to scare white folks that hoards of brown people are going to take over the country in order to win elections. This is not America First, it is Trump First. America’s interests are dead last for Trump and Republicans.

Norman Hoffman

Waynesville 

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