Politics - News Analysis

Spokespeople For Former Presidents Respond — Trump Is Lying About Discussing The Border Wall With Them

Donald Trump claimed on Friday that past presidents have privately confided to him that they regret not building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

But at least three of the four living U.S. presidents — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — did no such thing.

And I think it’s safe to safe that Jimmy Carter never regretted building a border wall.

Asked if Clinton told Trump that he should have built a border wall, Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said, “He did not. In fact, they’ve not talked since the inauguration.”

Bush spokesman Freddy Ford also said the two men had not discussed the matter. And Obama, for his part, has not spoken with Trump since his inauguration, except for a brief exchange at George H.W. Bush’s funeral in Washington, D.C.

Obama has consistently blasted Trump’s pledge to build a border wall.

“Suggesting that we can build an endless wall along our borders, and blame our challenges on immigrants — that doesn’t just run counter to our history as the world’s melting pot, it contradicts the evidence that our growth and our innovation and our dynamism has always been spurred by our ability to attract strivers from every corner of the globe,” he said in 2016.

Since taking office, Trump has had little contact with past presidents, even his Republican predecessors. Some in the Bush family, for example, have privately signaled their distaste for him and Trump did not attend the funeral for former first lady Barbara Bush last April.

The White House has not released an explanation of Trump’s remarks, which came during a lengthy appearance in the Rose Garden in which he insisted he won’t reopen the government until Democrats relent and approve more than $5 billion for the wall.

“This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me and they all know it,” Trump said. “Some of them have told me that we should have done it.”

So, we can once again chalk up another Trump claim as a flat-out lie.

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