hundreds of miles of wall
2,000 words and three hours later...
hundreds of miles of wall
I’ll start this address by specifying that this is a heavily opinionated piece that was influenced by my take on the current political landscape of the United States of America. If you don’t “have time” or find no interest in politics, and willingly leave behind all absorbable knowledge and information relating to them, please do yourself a favor and stop reading now. You may even find that this Substack post is not for you, or that my whole profile, or my whole personality, is not for you. I’m also writing this in Chicago style, not AP. So, yes, I am allowed to be subjective here. Build your wall.
With that said, the years 2015–2026 should be studied for several generations moving forward—which is even an understatement. The beginning year was my freshman year of high school. Around that same time, I personally began to look deeper into politics and government than I ever had at any point in my adolescence.
Whether I just haven’t researched enough, or choose to ignore milder examples of historically toxic presidential characters, I can’t help but seem to arrive at the same conclusion whenever I try to compare the sitting commander in chief to other figures throughout such a timeline. Aside from those who endorsed slavery, owned slaves, stole land, accomplished genocides, and thought of minorities—and specifically Black Americans—as the gum that touched their shoes, I consistently rest on the idea that Donald John Trump may be the worst measure of social integrity and moral righteousness to ever slither about Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Build the wall” started as merely a governmentally sound, yet still cynically charged, campaign slogan advertised by Trump that garnered the attention of millions of Americans. It pulled those people into crowds to centralize hundreds and thousands of miles from their homes. The three inimical words went on to be mimicked to no one’s benefit and created nightmares shared by its targeted demographic.
In the aftermath of the 2016 United States presidential election, many “Make America Great Again” fanatics consistently defended their lust for mass deportation and encampment of Latinos under their Great White Hope by deflecting and reflecting on instances of deportation under previous administrations. For reasons obvious to the intellectually curious eye, I will refrain from copying and pasting exact figures from every deportation effort recorded throughout the history of American policy. I will, however, make the claim that the advertisement of undocumented immigrants as a fearmongering tactic had never before been pushed at a higher rate.
Furthermore, if anyone has ever seen a cartel member with their own two eyes who crossed the United States–Mexico border and inflicted harm on a loved one, or a person loved by another, please share that information with me now. And, so that I don’t miss a spot, illegal drug trafficking involves more parties—ethnically and financially—than a group of Mexican men with bankrolls, tattoos and guns.
Though I feel that subscription to legal immigration to any country of choice is the wiser option of the two, I am 100 percent against the mass dehumanization of those who find themselves living in this country for whatever reason, or however they made it here. And on the throne of the kingdom of dehumanization sits the man who profits and recharges from exiling anyone different from himself the most.
I say this with full intent to displease all who disagree; and as a person of African descent, with a lineage of disenfranchised individuals historically overlooked in every one of its contributions to the construction of this state territory forever known as America; and further, as a descendant of Holocaust and Iaşi pogrom survivors:
There has never been a supplement purer to this land than immigration.
As of 2024, roughly 123 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations—the highest figure on record, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). In the year 2026, most living Americans have never experienced any of those reasons causing them to flee a place of residency in their lifetimes.
During both elections in which Trump was made a competitive candidate, he chose to target the uninformed but legally educated minds as a main support group. These people choose not to perform research. Unfortunately, I share the same generation as many of them, sponging up most of their political and world news from the likes of social media personalities on TikTok, Instagram, and X, formerly known as Twitter. But oh, so forgotten has become the original motto to “build the wall.”
These platforms have become spaces where incels, and anti-everything that isn’t white or “right,” from a political-stance, thrive. Growing up in an era where derogatory terms used online were at the forefront of male youth lexicon, it’s astonishing how little we’ve learned since the early days of Odd Future and C.O.D. lobbies. Nevertheless, all of that video game spillage has stained the once productive, creative, and lighthearted communal spaces that we now share with our parents and grandparents.
While it would be irresponsible of me to trace the entire trail that led us here back to this one despicable man, I would have to be naïve to dismiss the power that he has used to destroy complexes of protection while scaling a divisive blueprint purposed for assembling hatred.
Some of the socially unaware and downright offensive writs and bills this man has passed include Executive Order 14151—Ending Federal DEIA Programs; Executive Order 14190—Ending “Radical Indoctrination” in Schools, banning K–12 instruction of material deemed “anti-American,” raising free expression and academic freedom concerns; Executive Order 14149—“Ending Federal Censorship,” which bars federal cooperation with platforms on content moderation; experts warn it could empower misinformation; the second Trump travel ban (2025 proclamation), which restricted entry from multiple foreign majority-Muslim or majority-Black countries and was criticized as discriminatory; Schedule F, allowing easier firing of federal workers by removing civil service protections from about 50,000 federal workers and potentially politicizing the civil service; broad use of executive orders, as Trump issued more executive orders in his second term’s first year than in his first term, bypassing Congress and raising separation-of-powers concerns; Executive Order 14182—Enforcing the Hyde Amendment, ending federal funding for elective abortions and reversing Democrat-initiated health care access expansions, rolling back reproductive rights access; withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, re-withdrawing the United States from global climate commitments and hindering international climate cooperation; cuts and freezes on foreign aid, including a temporary ninety-day freeze and USAID contractions that disrupted climate finance and development assistance globally; AI “Free of Ideological Bias” standards, with executive directives on AI procurement aimed at preventing “ideological bias” and raising debate over politicizing technology and free speech versus content moderation; and so on.
A “big, beautiful wall” was once promised along the entire U.S.–Mexico border (1,954 miles). Repeatedly, Mr. T said Mexico would pay for it. It was framed as a core, signature achievement of his presidency. Off topic, but before we continue, please shut up about the HBCU “gift.” It’s a microaggression for MAGA at this point. Ice Cube was being weird, and there needs to be more funding for HBCUs across the board, like clockwork.
Back to the bad guy. About 458 miles of border barriers were constructed or replaced during his first term. Only about 80 miles were new barriers where none previously existed. The rest were replacements or upgrades of older fencing from earlier administrations. Who paid for it? The U.S. Congress and the U.S. military, with funds redirected after Trump declared a national emergency. Who paid for that? U.S. taxpayers, not Mexico.
So even after he promised millions a darkly promoted, false “dream,” and failed, most of those same millions of people chose to forget about it and vote for him again anyway. There is a striking forgetfulness threaded in the curtains of shame that MAGA so proudly uses to shutter all who differ in opinion. It’s almost as if that moment in time falls in the same family of “lost” moments that the entire history of white nationalism once embraced and tries so hard to make the rest of the world forget. Picking and choosing what’s worth remembering should be an indicator that someone is not fit for leadership—especially not in the free world.
Even as I want to laugh at the fools that actually believe more than 40 percent of any thoughts to ever exit from his mouth and befoul the air, I can’t get a giggle out.
He has publicly bullied people with disabilities of all kinds, innocent women, children, religions, and all nonwhite races. He has lied about his own comments, his own sexual misconduct, his own influence on the American economy, his own understanding of the Bible, and so much more.
I am not Christian, and I am choosing not to comment in this piece about Israel other than my disappointment in the State of Israel’s chosen methods and levels of retaliation. So, if you came here looking for my opinion on that, you’ll unfortunately have to hold out for now. But I can’t help but admit that I think of Trump no differently than I grew up learning to characterize Ronald Reagan as: the devil.
Chaos is his goal, and an algebraic equation couldn’t hold a candle to the type of division he has caused that has troubled us for so long. One of the saddest parts about such a difficult problem, as the heat turns up, is that I don’t think any of us anticipate it ever freezing over. Instead, we now have new ICE.
It all began with a wall. The wall does not span the entire border. Large portions of the border remained unwalled, naturally blocked by rivers and mountains, and covered only by surveillance or fencing. As this unfinished symbol of xenophobia was perceivably placed on the backburner, Trump has since shifted his language from “the wall is finished” to “we built hundreds of miles of wall”—which is true in a limited, technical sense, but not in the way the original promise was understood—by the easily manipulated.
We have lies all around us, and the mainstream media is too shy. So many young people have eaten up the hatred. Their bellies are full with fire, only focused on a party that could not care less about their futures. Augmented realities are taking over and confusing elders so badly that they can’t even decipher what is real and what is not. A woman whose husband was killed less than a year ago is celebrating political conquests with fireworks behind her. One of the 2010s’ most popular musical entertainers, who is not a U.S. citizen and built her fan base on LGBTQ rights, is parading her sudden hatred for MAGA critics alongside neo-Nazi enthusiasts. It has all been the foundation for one thing that continues to trend upward.
He has built a different wall. It’s infinite in length, lifespan, and liability. Naturally, I’ve never been the most optimistic human being, even though I wish I could be. But I feel that I am only being realistic in my thoughts about this wall.
It’s a wall that is no longer invisible, as those who stand on opposite sides have become too difficult for the other side to see. While this country will always find itself stuck in its inherited evil traits, there is no longer room for consensus or rationale. It is only a matter of time before the cement comes crashing down.
Though most international migrants are not fleeing war or political violence anymore, history and humility should be playing more of a role in analyzing the reasoning entrusted to the chosen “leader of the free world.” The word freedom fundamentally lives on principles that include absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government. Roughly 4.1 percent of the total U.S. population is represented by illegal immigrants. Form your own opinions based on those numbers, but please think beyond the wall.
“Revolutions are never peaceful.
– Malcolm X
