(CNN) One thing about Donald Trump: He knows how to tell you what he's really thinking.

About the wall, for instance.

Consider this from Trump during the campaign in 2015, explaining the rationale for his favorite edifice:

"What I do best in life, I build. ... I want it to be so beautiful because maybe someday they'll call it 'The Trump Wall.' Maybe. If they call this 'The Trump Wall,' it has to be beautiful."

There you go. The wall, for the President, is a monument. To himself. A visible legacy of his achievement; an example of what he considers himself best at: building and branding. It's not like tax reform or trade policy. It's actually concrete (or slats) and there for all the world to see as a Trump achievement. Even when he leaves the Oval Office. And way beyond.

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