As Donald Trump fights for funding for his beloved US-Mexico border wall to curb illegal immigration, a video has surfaced in which the president describes exactly how to… climb over a wall.
Footage of a speech at Wagner College on New York’s Staten Island shows Trump urging students to “never ever give up”, adding: “Don’t give up. Don’t allow it to happen. If there’s a concrete wall in front of you, go through it, go over it, go around it, but get to the other side of that wall.”
In the 2004 video, Trump was receiving an honorary degree from the college, but since his election at least 33 Wagner professors and more than 700 alumni have called on the school to rescind the honour.
The president does not appear to be currently following his own advice – he reportedly stormed out of the latest round of negotiations over funding for the wall, which led to a government shutdown.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump asked House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi at Wednesday’s White House meeting whether she would agree to the $5bn he is demanding to fund the project.
When she said “no”, Schumer said, Trump got up and said: “Then we have nothing to discuss.” Schumer added: “And he just walked out.”
The Democrat branded the president’s actions “really, really unfortunate”.
Trump called the meeting “a total waste of time”.
Among the replies to the 2004 video, tweeted by The Daily Show, are plenty highlighting the irony of Trump’s remarks, but it was this reply that jumped out…
The tweet links to a clip from a 1950s western TV series called ‘Trackdown’ in which a snake oil salesman named Walter Trump claimed he could save the world by building a wall around a town.
And it’s not a hoax.