One thing to remember as we process another WWE Smackdown extravaganza out of the Oval Office—this one over funding for the Big, Beautiful Wall promised by Donald Trump, American president—is that the same Donald Trump used to promise Mexico would pay for The Wall. Remember that? It wasn't that long ago. He was pretty clear about it. He said it a lot. As usual, that Trumpian campaign promise had no downsides for his base of aging Caucasians: we'll keep Those People out, and They will have to pay for it! There was never any mention of the American taxpayer fronting the bill until reality intervened. Now, the payment issue is just another sign that hypocrisy is dead—murdered, with a pipe, in the conservatory, by Colonel Shameless.

Suddenly, we're treated to some obvious theater in the Oval, where Trump invited in some cameras to watch him try to bully "Chuck and Nancy"—the Democratic Senate Minority leader and rising Speaker of the House, respectively—as a spectacle to get the blood flowing for those same Agin' Caucasians. Our big, strong president is going to get his Wall, and he's going to own some libs to get it. Another proud moment in the White House, and for our democratic republic.

Uh, but wait. Did he just say that?

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Trump gives the Democrats the best soundbite they could possibly hope for: "Yes, if we don't get what we want...I will shut down the government. ... I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it." pic.twitter.com/e4xbjlMvwj — David Mack (@davidmackau) December 11, 2018

In an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll out Tuesday, a majority of Americans responded that the president should compromise on The Wall rather than shut down the government. The margin was 21 points. That seems like bad politics, until you see the figure the United States president actually cares about: 65 percent of Republicans think he should force a shutdown to get his $5 billion in funding. The Base backs him here, and that's all that matters. That's the whole country to him. That's who he represents. Again, this is all of our taxpayer money, going towards a project which nobody serious thinks will stop the flow of drugs into the country, and which might not be particularly effective in keeping people out either. $5 billion also isn't enough to build The Wall—even Trump lowballed it at $15 billion a few days ago.

(Of course, we could never dream of spending this kind of money on something like education or healthcare. Who's going to pay for that?)

You can tell nothing matters because Trump threw down the gauntlet in a bid to showcase our desperate need for The Wall only after saying The Wall is already being built and it's Tremendous, You're Gonna Love It:

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This was one of many completely incoherent moments, like when Trump seemed to simultaneously take credit for a Very Secure Border and suggest the border was in crisis. He also continually claimed he could win a vote for The Wall in the House, which Pelosi easily shut down. Then Trump tried to fear-monger about immigrants carrying disease, a throwback to his strategy in the homestretch of the 2018 midterms. All this led to a sense of palpable desperation, which Schumer seized on:

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SCHUMER dunks on TRUMP! "When the president brags that he won North Dakota and Indiana, he's in real trouble." pic.twitter.com/AK8vZIGya4 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2018

This all goes back to the essential bankruptcy of The Wall as a pragmatic enterprise. It addresses a crisis, in illegal immigration, which has been in decline for years apart from a slight uptick in 2018. It does not solve the non-crisis, and is in fact a titanic waste of cash. And it now turns out it will be American taxpayer cash, not the Mexican cash that was promised, that will pay for it.

It's almost like The Wall is nothing but a symbol—a monumental middle-finger for White America to put on display for the rest of the world. And it's almost like making Mexico pay for it was just part of that symbolism, a bit of extra Fuck You! atop the resentment sundae. Nobody at those rallies, it seems, was particularly focused on the financial details.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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