President Donald Trump appears to have dug in his heels on the border wall, reversing course on a deal with Democrats and saying that he will leave the federal government shuttered indefinitely unless he gets $5 billion for the wall.

On Thursday, former GOP operative Rick Wilson appeared on CNN with Don Lemon and unleashed an epic rant about the proposed wall, which Trump had promised Mexico would pay for on the campaign trail, and the loyal Trumpistas who support it.

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“The wall has always been a con for Donald Trump’s credulous rube 10-tooth base,” said Wilson. “The wall has always been a scam. It has always been a lie. Nothing about the wall has ever been real. And Donald Trump knows it. He is a guy who has a long history in his career as being a con man. He is conning these people who believe he’s going to build a 2,000-mile, 30-foot-high concrete wall with laser moats and alligators in it. It’s just crazy. It always has been. And yet they suspend their disbelief because they believe so strongly in Donald Trump.”

Wilson said that Republican voters should know better than to support the wall.

“It’s an insult to their intelligence, but obviously it seems to work with his base because they believe it over and over again, that nothing will stop the brown horde except the wall,” he said.

Lemon pointed out that the proposed structure has gone from a “big beautiful wall that Mexico was going to pay for” to some new steel slat fencing.

“It’s going to end with it being the freedom ditch,” Wilson said.

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Watch below.