As many people who keep up with the news are aware, President Donald Trump recently vetoed Congress’ attempt to stop him from declaring a national emergency in order to fund his wall. He justified exploiting this loophole by stating that immigration led toa “profound threat” to national safety and that spending at least 5.7 billion dollars on a literal wall separating the United States and Mexico is going to make America safer. When Trump suggested building a wall during his campaign, I and multiple people I talked to thought that he was joking. It seems like such an idiotic, nationalistic scapegoat to point at another nation, blame them for many of our problems, and act like a tactile catch-all anti-globalist barrier is going to bypass all nuanced complexity and solve these problems. It also seems like a depressingly transparent attempt to physically manifest the conviction and “achievement” Trump wants to flash to his supporters so they’ll love him more. He stands by his word, right? He fights for what he believes in and gets things done, that’s what matters! If I threw a bunch of eggs at the White House at full speed and resisted every attempt security made to stop me, I would be fighting for what I believed in all right. I definitely would be getting things done by painting the White House until it looks like the Egg House but that would also be a pointless waste of time, grocery money, and perfectly good eggs.

The thing that infuriates me most about this declaration is that, if you really look at copious other actions Trump has taken in the past, it should be crystal clear that the last thing he cares about is national safety (unless it makes him look good). If Trump cared about national safety, he would not have put so many Americans at risk of total financial collapse by aiding in the longest government shutdown in history, a temper tantrum that lasted 35 days! If Trump cared about national safety, he would not ignore and even exacerbate ecological destruction for mere monetary gain and notoriety among radical republicans. If Trump cared about national safety, he would not have removed sanctions on Russia, despite the nation being a clear threat to ours. He would not reduce funding in the sciences, Medicare and Medicaid. He would not support sending our troops to fight and even die in foreign wars that are not ours to fight, such as those in Yemen and Afghanistan. He would not germinate seeds of discrimination, nationalism, ignorance, and intolerance, refuse to denounce white supremacists and totalitarian leaders and propagate blatant sexist and racist attitudes that further dichotomize our country. He would not refuse to be chief diplomat at a time when diplomacy may be the only thing that can save us from imminent nuclear war.

It may be obvious that I’m not in favor of many of Trump’s decisions. I started off feeling neutral about him throughout the campaign, but more and more of his actions seem to demonstrate to me that he is an obstinate, ignorant, megalomaniacal, self-interested, underqualified, incompetent, and even dangerous president who has the potential to do permanent damage to this nation.

Please note that all opinion columns in The Journal reflect the individual author’s own perspectives on a topic, and the views and opinions expressed in these columns do not necessarily represent those of The Journal.