Finally, though some off-payroll folks may agree that border security needs tightening and may even support some sort of new barrier, the pertinent question hasn't been properly posed: Would you still support the wall if it meant that you'd indefinitely be unemployed or continue working for no pay? Do I hear a You betcha? Didn't think so.

Trump's imperviousness to others' misfortunes is by now legendary. What other president would toss rolls of paper towels to hurricane victims? But then, narcissists see only their own suffering, always someone else's fault, and empathy is for schmucks.

The wall, meanwhile, is subterfuge for his personal fulfillment. Once envisioned as a massive concrete wall with a "big, beautiful door" -- perhaps a monument to the Trump brand -- it lately has morphed into a hodgepodge of found objects: metal slats here, some cyclone fencing there, here a bit of steel -- and over there, maybe, a bit of Papier-mache.

The specter of the hyped-up, Central American caravan that kept hysterics busy with images of terrorists, rapists and body snatchers seemed to vaporize after the midterm elections. Now that 2020 is up for grabs, The Wall Must Go Up.