Amidst the national crisis affecting 800,000 federal employees struggling without paychecks during the government shutdown, Donald Trump continued touting his border wall with a blatant lie.
On January 19, 2019, in front of the White House, Trump defended his half-baked wall at the U.S./Mexico border to justify the continued shutdown.
Trump cited the effectiveness of a wall protecting San Antonio, Texas, to prove his point that walls work.
His comment left thousands of people confused because there is no wall in San Antonio, Texas.
The city is also located 150 miles north of the Mexican border, and there would be no need for protecting the city that had been removed from the Mexican border since Texas gained independence from Mexico on April 21,1836.
So people were understandably left scratching their heads over Trump's bald-faced statement. Why?
Because the President has lied to us once again. He told reporters:
"Everybody knows that walls work. You look at different places they put up a wall, no problem."
"You look at San Antonio. You look at so many different places."
"They go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities, immediately, immediately."
Filmmaker Adam Best tweeted about the President's fictional wall reference.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg vouched for the city as being one of the safest in the country, despite Trump's claim.
"San Antonio is one of the safest big cities in the nation."
"The Express-News reported last year that crime is at a 30-year low here. The plummeting crime rate is due to the hard work being done by the brave men and women of the San Antonio Police Department."
My San Antonio added that the only known wall in the city's history are the walls at the Alamo, and we all know how that ended. But does Trump?
The more educated denizens of Twitter affirmed the city of San Antonio was safe and denounced Trump for inventing walls that do not exist.
According to fact-checking site Snopes, 45 may have confused San Antonio with El Paso, a city he referenced a week earlier.
"El Paso, Texas, went from one of the most unsafe parts or cities in the United States to one of the safest cities in the United States as soon as they put up the wall."
The mockery over Trump's ignorant claim continued.
But others saw the inherent danger lying beneath all the humor.
As we enter the 30th day of the longest shutdown in U.S. history, listening to yet another ludicrous declaration from the President defending his precious wall has become the new normal.
