Border walls. Turns out they’re not just for getting elected.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that the wall he's building at the U.S.-Mexico border will not only help guard against illegal immigration. Apparently, it’ll also guard against the spread of the coronavirus.

No. Really.

Trump was responding to conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who tweeted early Tuesday about why we need the wall “now more than ever.”

“With China Virus spreading across the globe, the US stands a chance if we can control of our borders,” Kirk tweeted.

Trump’s response: “Going up fast. We need the Wall more than ever!"

No proof that it's coming from Mexico

Never mind the complete lack of evidence that anyone in the U.S. has been infected by someone crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.

Or the absolute dearth of public health officials who say a wall would help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“Not that I’ve seen,” the CDC’s Robert Redfield said, in reply to a question on Capitol Hill earlier today.

This isn’t the first time Trump has suggested that a border wall could somehow protect us from the coronavirus.

"Border security is also health security ... ," Trump said last month, during a campaign rally in South Carolina.

“We will do everything in our power to keep the infection from entering our country. We have no choice. Whether it’s the virus that we’re talking about or many other public health threats, the Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and well-being of all Americans … Now you see it with the coronavirus.”

And here you thought the only things that Mexico sent us were murderers and rapists.

Of course, it's all nonsense.

Walls won't keep coronavirus out

Dr. Celine Grounder, New York University clinical professor of infectious diseases, told HuffPost last month that Trump’s remarks “show a real lack of understanding on the way diseases spread.”

“Walls are not going to keep (the coronavirus) out," she said. "There's no point with approaching this as a borders issue. It's here."

Oh, sure there is. If you're the president and it's an election year and stocks are tanking and people are questioning whether you are prepared to steer the nation through this crisis.

If you're the guy whose approach to every problem is to give it a funny nickname or blame it on "fake news" or Trump Derangement Syndrome.

If you're the politician who craves a good campaign rally to boost your ego – at a time when public health officials are warning people to avoid crowds.

Maybe Mexico needs protecting ... from us

Talking about a border wall is in Trump's wheelhouse. Talking about how he will lead this nation through a da pandemic? Not so much.

Curiously, Trump has not called for building a wall at the U.S.-Canadian border, given the apparent repellent properties of steel fencing when it comes to coronagerms.

If such fences could keep an epidemic at bay, though, shouldn’t it be Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador out there with backhoes and wheelbarrows?

According to the latest numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19:

Mexico has had seven cases, or 0.1 per million people. 0 dead.

Canada: 80, or 2.1 per million people. 1 dead.

U.S.: 974 or 2.9 per million people. 30 dead.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.