Another day, another confirmed lie for President Donald Trump. This time, Trump said that “some” of the four former living presidents told him that they should have funded a wall during their administrations, and each man has spoken out to contradict Trump’s claims.
“This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me, and they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it,” President Trump said on Friday, according to a report from the Huffington Post .
However, today, President Jimmy Carter joined both President Bush and President Clinton in denying Trump’s claim. Carter released a statement on the matter.
“I have not discussed the border wall with President Trump, and do not support him on the issue.”
Both Clinton and Bush denied Trump’s claim on Friday shortly after he made it. As for former President Barack Obama, his spokesperson declined to comment, but Obama and Trump have not spoken since Trump’s 2017 inauguration, aside from a short moment at former President George H.W. Bush’s funeral last month.
“We can’t just put walls up all around America. Walls don’t keep out threats like terrorism or disease ? and that’s why we propose leading our alliances and helping other countries develop, and pushing back against tyrants,” Obama has said at rallies. He also called the wall an impractical idea and scoffed at the possibility during Trump’s presidential campaign.
Jimmy Carter joins former presidents denying discussing border wall with Trump https://t.co/QDYd6WpmAE via @thehill #USRC pic.twitter.com/pNGArq169U
— Top U.S. & World News? (@USRealityCheck) January 7, 2019
The details come after another Trump controversy. On Friday, he also claimed he might use his executive privilege to build the wall and bypass Congress and the budget altogether. The partial U.S. government shutdown continues into its third week with little hope of an end in sight because the president has said he will not sign a budget that does not include more than $5 billion in funding for the wall, which he wants to build on the U.S.’s southern border with Mexico.
According to Inquisitr reports, several people, including Fox News analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, as well as Representative Adam Schiff, both said that Trump does not have the power to use an executive order and military funding to erect his promised wall. Both men used the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1950 when steelworkers went on strike while the U.S. was engaged in the Korean War. At that time, President Harry Truman sought to nationalize the steel industry, but the Supreme Court ruled that Truman did not have that ability because it belongs to Congress.
The longer the shutdown continues, the more federal workers and those who depend on the government services the workers provide will feel the pinch. It’s possible Trump may soon find support for the wall decreasing even among his base.
