He tasked Jared with reinventing the federal government. Unless constant rash firings, unfilled jobs and shakedowns of foreign governments constitute reinvention, this remains on Jared’s infinite to-do list. The president put Jared in charge of brokering a durable peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Insert punch line here. He followed Jared’s counsel that faith be placed in Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. We know how that worked out.

The president somehow looked at that track record and decided that the dynamo he should entrust with his central campaign promise — a secure barrier between the United States and Mexico — was … Jared! And so we have the trillionth gorgeous example of his investment in fiction.

Nearly three years into Trump’s presidency, the border wall barely exists. Subtract the upgrading of fencing and such that was already there and Trump has, by some recent estimates, constructed fewer than 25 miles of actually new barrier. The southwestern border is nearly 2,000 miles long.

But Jared is on the case! According to The Post, he “convenes biweekly meetings in the West Wing, where he questions an array of government officials about progress” and “explains the president’s wishes.” Huh. Those wishes are hardly cryptic, and how complicated can this questioning be? Already, The Post reported, there’s grumbling that Jared is just an annoyance.

That belittles his symbolic significance. Many journalists, including me, have tried to settle on the perfect mascot for the Trump administration. There are choices galore. The greedy, vainglorious Scott Pruitt, who did his best to decimate the Environmental Protection Agency, fit the bill, but he’s long gone. Mike Pompeo embodies the Faustian arc of so many of the president’s aides and allies, from principle-driven dismissal of Trump during the 2016 campaign to reputation-torching submission when he dangled a ticket to the big time.

But for naked opportunism and situational scruples, Jared’s my guy. Remember how he and Ivanka were going to contain the president’s ego, blunt his cruelty, whisper sweet moderation in his ear? That was then. Now he’s devoting himself to an exorbitant, unnecessary monument to Trump’s nativism and xenophobia.

There’s an upside, though. With Jared in the saddle, this horse won’t go far.

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