Clearly France is a source of inspiration for Donald Trump right now. Rather than offering his condolences to the victims of the Strasbourg terrorist attack, the American president used the tragedy to put pressure on his political opponents.
“Another very bad terror attack in France. We are going to strengthen our borders even more. Chuck and Nancy must give us the votes to get additional Border Security!” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, December 12.
Another very bad terror attack in France. We are going to strengthen our borders even more. Chuck and Nancy must give us the votes to get additional Border Security!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2018
This tweet arrives on the heels of a heated exchange in the Oval Office, in front of the press, between Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, on Tuesday. Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, and Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, both democrats, were in the White House to try to come to an agreement about how to fund the government since the funding bill requires democratic support to pass. The Democrat pair and the president raised their voices fairly quickly in the conversation about whether or not the government should allocate $5 billion in next year’s budget to build a wall along the United States’ southern border with Mexico, which Trump has been promising since he began his campaign for the presidency in 2015. (The current bill allocates $1.6 billion, the same as last year’s.) Trump threatened a government shutdown if he doesn’t get the necessary funds.
Last week, Donald Trump found inspiration in France’s gilets jaunes protests. He wrote several tweets using the demonstrations to justify his opposition to the Paris Climate Agreement.
