President Donald Trump said today he may issue an order to deploy more troops, possibly up to 15,000, to the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
The midterm elections are next week, and Trump is playing to racist voters who are inspired to vote Republican by his white supremacist fearmongering over a so-called “migrant caravan” of a few thousand poor and underfed people from Central America who are a thousand miles away from our border, and probably won't make it here by Election Day, November 6.
Trump said: "As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out, we have about 5,000—we'll go up to anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 military personnel, on top of Border Patrol, ICE, and everybody else at the border. Nobody's coming in."
"Immigration is a very, very big, and very dangerous—a really dangerous topic," says President Trump.
In today's exchange with reporters, the President was asked if he considered himself a fearmonger.
Trump: "No, I'm not fearmonger at all. Immigration is a very important subject."
He also said:
QUESTION: Have you received a subpoena at all from Robert Mueller?
TRUMP: No.
Breaking: Trump, talking to reporters before leaving WH for Florida, says troop deployment to border may go up to 10,000 to 15,000 on top of border patrol officers.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 31, 2018
President Trump re: ending birthright citizenship says that if President Obama “could do DACA, we can do this by executive order.”
DACA wasn't set up by executive order; it was White House guidance to DHS. Important legal distinction.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 31, 2018
Trump’s off to Florida to stump for the midterms, with:
-Ronna McDaniel
-Kevin Hassett
-Bill Shine
-Dan Scavino
-Stephen Miller
-Johnny DeStefano
on board AF1 with him. pic.twitter.com/2N1LxXyzYY— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 31, 2018
If the President is calling for war against an invading army, shouldn't the U.S. Congress be voting on a declaration of war? Trump is threatening to deploy more troops against these "enemies" than we have in Iraq or Afghanistan.
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) October 31, 2018
According to NBC News, this would be similar to the number of U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan. https://t.co/Pq27hQTJdI
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 31, 2018
Willie Horton shit https://t.co/FCofGZYdkJ
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 31, 2018
Trump says Republicans are doing "very well" with women voters because they want security: "They don't want these people pouring into our country totally unchecked" pic.twitter.com/IbRX6dwYh6
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 31, 2018
This is a hell of a lede: “President Trump is mobilizing the vast powers of the military and other parts of the federal government to help bolster Republican election efforts…” https://t.co/f0Sx9QxzDE
— Evil Prof (@dandrezner) October 31, 2018