Of the many objections to the construction of President Trump's "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful" border wall—time, expense, impracticality, unpopularity, and the fact that it would be a de facto taxpayer-funded monument to racism—perhaps the most foundational one is that the wall, as currently contemplated, will not work.

I do not mean that in the sense that it be unable to prevent illegal immigration (since border crossings are at a historic low, and most undocumented people in the U.S. simply overstay their visas), or stop the importation of illegal drugs (since most drugs are smuggled through legal points of entry), or curtail violent crime (since immigrants commit such offenses at lower rates than citizens), although all of those things are true. I mean that, as a structure designed to prevent people from passing through it, the wall is destined to be a hilarious and historic failure, because anyone with access to a Home Depot can apparently saw right through it.

From NBC News:

Department of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS.

A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after military and Border Patrol personnel were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools.

Here, gaze upon this latest feat of American ingenuity while Don Cheadle's indignant screams of "YOU HAD ONE JOB!" echo in your head:

The president, when asked by reporters about the most famous promise of his campaign unraveling in real time, explained that the prototype in question was designed by previous administrations; as NBC News notes, this is true, but it was constructed during his. Unless the White House has space-age advances in steel manufacture to announce in the immediate future, it remains unclear how he believes the prototype's vintage explains away obvious questions about the hardiness or durability of its components.

As if grappling with the limitations of metallurgical science were not enough, Trump also took another shot at explaining how he plans to finance construction of the wall, which is a task he promised would fall to Mexico. "I never said that," he said, referencing something he said probably hundreds of times on the campaign trail, basking afterwards in thunderous applause. "And I never meant they're going to write out a check," he said, pretending that the since-archived portion of his campaign web site, which outlined in painstaking detail how he planned to force Mexico to "make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion," did not exist.