Shooting people in the legs, filling moats with alligators and impaling people on spikes; no, this isn’t a torture scene in a medieval film, but rather Donald Trump’s plans to stop people getting into the US.
The idea of a standard wall being built between the US and Mexico is extreme enough for most people, but its been revealed the president had much more radical ideas in mind for the border, including an alligator-infested moat.
He apparently made his suggestions during an Oval Office meeting in March that began with Trump launching into a rant about migrants.
So nothing new there then.
White House advisers in attendance shared details of the meeting in a book titled Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration which will be released on October 8, however excerpts have been adapted and published by The New York Times.
The book reveals the POTUS asked for cost estimates on several ‘solutions’ he’d come up with to stop people illegally crossing the border, one suggested to fortify the wall with a ‘water-filled trench stocked with snakes or alligators’.
This idea naturally caught the attention of the internet, with many people desperate to find out how much it actually would cost to create an alligator-infested moat:
Another of his not-so-brilliant ideas was to have the wall electrified and place spikes on top that could ‘pierce human flesh’. Many people attempting to cross the border are seeking asylum, but the president, arguably the most powerful man in the world, apparently wanted to torture them instead.
In public, Trump frequently threatened to shut down the entire border as well as suggesting soldiers should shoot migrants if they threw rocks at them. His staff told him shooting them would be illegal, so in private he came up with the alternative proposal of shooting migrants in the legs to ‘slow them down’.
His aides had to point out this, too, would have been illegal. The 30-minute meeting was extended to two hours as Trump’s team tried to placate him.
The president retaliated, reportedly shouting:
You are making me look like an idiot! I ran on this. It’s my issue.
Thomas D. Homan, who had served as Mr. Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commented:
The president was frustrated and I think he took that moment to hit the reset button.
The president wanted it to be fixed quickly.
At the time of the meeting, more than 100,000 migrants were being apprehended at the border each month, causing chaos at many of the Border Patrol stations tasked with detaining and caring for migrant families and children, Business Insider report.
The situation took much of Trump’s attention and contributed to the ousting of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who found herself constantly having to tell the president he couldn’t have what he wanted.
During the March meeting, the president also proposed shutting down the entire 2,000-mile border by noon the following day, resulting in a huge panic among White House staff. They encouraged Trump to give them a week to fulfil his order, though he backed off when the time came.
However, he’s still not averse to the idea. This summer he told The New York Times ‘I have absolute power to shut down the border’.
Trump’s extreme ideas would almost be funny if they weren’t coming from someone with such a terrifying amount of power; we just have to hope his future suggestions continue to be too ridiculous to carry out.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.