Given that one of Donald Trump’s signature policies is building a wall on the Mexican border to shut out immigrants, it was rather gratifying to see him go through the indignity of being forced to jump a wall himself on Friday.
Trump and his entourage had to cross over a highway median barrier after demonstrators broke through police barricades at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Burlingame, San Francisco Friday. After jumping down from the barrier, the entourage entered the hotel through the back door and left the same way to avoid protesters.
Trump joked during his speech at the California Republican convention:
“It felt like I was crossing the border, actually.”
Unlike the immigrants fleeing poverty and oppression that he loves to vilify, Trump was assisted in his journey across the barrier by a bevy of dark-suited men. These minders can be seen escorting the Republican candidate every step of the way to ensure he doesn’t sully his tiny white hands.
The experience of crossing a wall is unlikely to dampen Trump’s enthusiasm for barriers and racial vilification. Trump deliberately builds metaphorical walls with his words, as evident in the level of protest he has evoked.
The image of the presidential candidate being forced to jump a wall to avoid protesters is therefore potently symbolic, and an amusing case of the chickens coming home to roost.
As recently as Thursday, Trump was extolling the virtues of his Mexican wall plan on Facebook when he attacked President Obama’s plan to raise the White House fence. It seems several people have jumped over it recently. Trump wrote:
“President Obama understands that you build strong, tall, beautiful walls to keep people out who don’t belong. People who get permission can enter the White House LEGALLY!”
Walls alone cannot keep people out if they are determined to get through, and thankfully there are many Americans who refuse to be shut out of the debate by Trump’s retrograde and divisive politics.
