The young Donald Trump, his pockets bulging with Daddy’s cash from Queens, ventured west across the 59th Street Bridge in the mid-1970s, when Manhattan was a mess. Times Square, with its sleazy XXX-rated movie theaters, its pickpockets and drugged-out panhandlers and its three-card monte con-artists eager to bamboozle gullible tourists from beyond the Hudson, was a sad symbol of New York City’s decay.

Four decades later, one wonders whether the Manhattan real estate magnate and erstwhile reality-TV star learned a thing or two in yesterday’s Times Square. Today, he is America’s Bamboozler in Chief. His latest sleight-of-hand is to distract from the dangers of his demagogy by raising up a specter. Yet again, he’s playing the American people for fools.

With less than a week to go before crucial mid-term elections, Trump raises the specter of swarthy invaders from Central America, dangerous and disease-bearing invaders as implacable as the Walking Dead. Among them might even be “Middle Easterners,” criminals, Islamic State terrorists — all funded by George Soros!

“This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!” the president of the United States tweeted Monday morning. To thwart the invasion, Trump announced that he is sending more than 5,000 active-duty troops to the border. The cringe-worthy name for their mission is “Operation Faithful Patriot.”

Of course, there is no invasion for Operation Faithful Patriot to thwart. Coming our way, walking ever so slowly through Mexico, is a pathetic band of Central American migrants desperate to escape brutal gangs and economic misery back home, desperately hoping for asylum in the United States. A gaggle of several hundred men, women and children, mostly families, the so-called caravan is nearly a thousand miles from our southern border. Numbers dwindle as they trudge northward.

The would-be refugees headed our way have every right to seek asylum, just as we have every right to assess their claims. It’s safe to say that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency with more than 60,000 employees, is up to the task.

It’s also safe to say that the Border Patrol, 20,000 strong, can thwart illegal border crossings, now that the number of crossings are only about a quarter of what they were in 2000. Yes, the number has risen slightly in recent months, but we’re not facing a border crisis.

We should note that the active-duty troops on their way to save us from the Central American horde of moms and kids do face a real danger: dying of boredom.

That’s the fate that has befallen National Guard personnel activated for border duty in the Rio Grande Valley, along with Texas Department of Public Safety personnel diverted from more important tasks in other areas of the state. With nothing much to do, National Guardsmen have time to check out the best Mexican-food restaurants in Roma and Rio Grande City; bored state troopers make picayune traffic stops along state Highway 83 between Laredo and Brownsville.

The National Guard and the state troopers are on the border for symbolic reasons, political reasons. Trump’s troops, who by law cannot engage in law-enforcement activities, will play the same role (at taxpayer expense, of course).

For those not yet bamboozled by the spectacle, Trump has also threatened to personally edit the U.S. Constitution 240-characters at a time. He tweeted his intent to unilaterally eliminate the 14th amendment’s establishment of birthright citizenship, a threat so hollow that Republican Speaker Paul Ryan was compelled to push back, saying the president “obviously cannot do that.”

But, as usual, Trump’s showmanship is less about what he’ll actually accomplish than a desperate plea for attention at a time when voters are increasingly skeptical of his administration’s plans to eliminate protections for preexisting conditions, hand out budget-busting tax cuts to billionaires and multi-billionaires, and, most recently, eliminate the minimum wage for working Americans.

Seedy, sleazy Times Square is but a distant memory. One day, the Trump presidency will be only a memory, as well. Meanwhile, the American people have an opportunity next week to begin the task of putting this nation aright by casting votes for decency, accountability and commitment to the noble task of governance. As citizens, it’s our own “faithful patriot operation.” No troops needed.