Looks like James Woods, similar to Ann Coulter, is suffering from wall-itis:
Dear Mr. President, your 2016 campaign and subsequent victory can be summed up in two words: The Wall. You haven’t delivered. Not one brick. I guarantee if you don’t #BuildTheWall, you won’t be re-elected. If you fail to do this ONE thing, you’re done. https://t.co/FcxUFcJKPn
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) April 2, 2018
Yeah, we all want the wall to be built, but as I wrote awhile back, it’s not happening, and as discussed numerous times, Trump’s failure to build the wall does no imperil his reelection.
But, yes, progress has been frustratingly slow, even slower than past administrations in terms of legislation and getting stuff done, with these enormous gaps in between progress. You can switch off the news for months at a time and not miss anything. Sometimes it seems like Trump is not trying hard enough, but also the inertia of Congress and the ‘system’ also plays a role.
As discussed in the post Trump, president de jure, Trump is succeeding and beating expectations in terms of things not falling apart as so many had wrongly predicted in 2016 and early 2017, and succeeding in terms of carrying out the perfunctory duties of President of the United States, but there is a difference between being vs. acting. Trump is doing the job of being president, but not acting. This is similar to the monarchies in Europe and the Arab countries, in which a monarch has power in terms of title/decree (de jure) but in reality (de facto ) has very little power in terms of policy implementation/action, and much of the action occurs in the background and or is delegated to others. In the case of the United States, the private sector and bureaucracy has the power; in Britain, it’s the Parliament.
Regarding trump’s failure to build a wall, there are many possibilities for how he still can be reelected:
Trump sets aside provisions that effectively cover the cost of a wall, but without having to built it. For example, if Trump indirectly levies $35 billion from Mexico and China due to trade renegotiation, Trump can say come 2020 “Due to tariffs and penalties on Mexico and China, we saved Americans $35 billion, which is the cost of the wall.”
Or maybe he is strategically timing the construction to coincide with the 2020 campaign. If construction begins in 2019, potential Trump voters may be more enthusiastic and turn out in higher numbers than if construction begins now.
Building a small wall may be good enough to say he ‘built’ something, and voters will agree that a small wall is better than none.
The absence of a wall will be overshadowed by the strong economy and stock market, and Trump is reelected on the strength of the economy, but also the failure of the left to run a candidate that appeals to White, middle-American voters. This is the most likely outcome, imho. I am so certain of this, I added to my stock positions today in anticipation of resumption of the bull market, and I expect the S&P 500 to end the year 10% higher, in addition to 10+% gains for 2019 and 2020.
Trump can tout increased deportations as evidence of success of his immigration policy. However, Obama the “deporter-in-chief” still has him beat, but the decline is possibly due to Trump being a deterrent.
I think James woods is smart enough to know that Trump still has a good shot of winning even without building a wall, and this ultimatum has more to do with frustration over how slow everything is, than Trump not winning.