Solving shutdown crisis may depend on what a "wall" is

In the three years since he first started pushing the idea of a border wall, the President has changed his rhetoric about the border wall in several respects. The most notable, of course, has been the fact that he has largely abandoned the ridiculous idea that Mexico would pay for the wall, something that Mexico made clear that it would not do. Over time, that particular part of his “plan” has evolved into the recently proposed ridiculous idea that Mexico is “paying” for the wall by virtue of the new trade pact between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, a claim that analysts say makes no sense whatsoever.

Additionally, Trump’s definition of what constitutes a “wall” seems to change depending on his own bizarre whims. In the beginning, he seemed to be clearly referring to a tall, thick concrete wall that literally stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico,, a structure that would be some 1,500 miles long and would require construction in areas where thanks to the physical difficulties of the terrain and other factors, physical walls simply aren’t practical.

More recently, though, Trump has been talking about a “wall” that consists of a variety of things, including simple repairs to existing fencing and a recognition that we don’t need to build a wall in the mountainous areas of the border region since trying to cross the border there is so difficult.