Anyone who saw Trump’s recent press conference should be very concerned. His rambling, repetitive and mostly false vocal potpourri displayed a person who is unraveling. The blatant lies were everywhere. The repetitions were extreme, as if repeating a lie somehow makes it into a truth.

Trump consistently mixed criminals and drug and human traffickers in with the families fleeing Central America for safety and asylum. He said, “they have cars so they just drive until they get to the end of the barrier and turn left.” Those in the caravan do not have cars.

He said the steel slatted wall would prevent drug trafficking. If you’ve seen a picture of the children with their arms through the openings in the slats, you’ll realize that drugs can be passed through as well. Unfortunately, animals will not be able to navigate through the barrier to migrate and wall construction will impact very sensitive environmental areas.

The assertion that there is a crisis on the border with thousands of terrorists and criminals apprehended is false. They are playing with statistics to instill fear.

Trump has hitched his wagon to the idea of “a wall that Mexico will pay for” and now he’s stuck with it. Mexico won’t pay and his idea that they pay through increased tariffs is ridiculous. We, the people, pay through increased prices on our purchases. Our government doesn’t receive any of this money.

By shutting down the government to get his wall he is harming hundreds of thousands of federal workers who live paycheck to paycheck and have mortgages to pay and food to purchase. It doesn’t affect him, so he doesn’t care. He will just watch the garbage and human waste pile up in the parks and needed services go unavailable, but he will be pleasing his base.