Three weeks into the partial government shutdown, no solution over border wall funding is in sight. President Trump wants $5.7 billion to fund a barrier made of steel slats. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would give Trump just $1 for the wall, and everyone knows Mexico is not paying for it. Trump even tried saying he never said Mexico would cut the U.S. a check for the wall, despite saying it countless times.
After two years of inaction with a Republican Congress, it is unclear exactly how the wall could be built without some sort of compromise with Democrats or doing something that might be unconstitutional.
That said, it’s worth noting this is not the first time in Trump’s career that he tried to pass the cost of one of his ventures onto another party.
Before there was the wall, there was Doug Flutie.
During his tenure as the owner of the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League, Trump sought to legitimize the league. One way he did this was by signing the 1984 Heisman Trophy winner prior to the 1985 NFL draft. Trump’s Generals drafted Flutie in January 1985 and offered him a five-year deal worth $7 million — but Trump decided he was not going to be the one to pay for it.
Instead, he sent letters to owners across the league asking them to help pay for Flutie. Trump’s alter ego, John Barron, even vouched for the idea to the press.
“Everybody asked Trump to go out and sign Flutie … for the good of the league,” he told UPI.
Now, this could have held some merit had the league not already had some talented quarterbacks in it — like now-Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young and Doug Williams, a seasoned NFL veteran who would later become the first African-American quarterback to win a Super Bowl. Plus, Trump’s team already had running back Herschel Walker, who is now in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Obviously, none of the owners chipped in to pay for Flutie — because there wasn’t much of an upside for them. They paid for their players (Young was on a four-year, $40 million contract with the Los Angeles Express), so why shouldn’t Trump? Sure, talent was good for the league, but it was the owners themselves who were responsible to acquire the best teams possible to make their own teams talented by serving their own best interests.
In a sense, this is like the ongoing debate over the wall where Trump is trying to pass off the cost of it to groups not interested in it. Mexico is not the one with the immigration problem. Americans aren’t fleeing their country over the southern border to go there.
What makes anyone think Democrats will be in favor of a wall without some sort of concession, or even with one? Sure, they may say they are against open borders — and some of them were a few years back — but 81 percent of Latino immigrants favor increasing the size and scope of the federal government, according to a 2012 Pew Research study. If it is easier to come over the southern border without a wall and then later be granted amnesty, citizenship, and voting rights, then why would Democrats support one now? After all, their children born here will also vote one day.
Like signing Flutie, the wall would be a major win for Trump and his fans, delivering on his biggest campaign promise. However, expecting people with different priorities just to give him the money to get it done failed in 1985, so one has to wonder how it could work now — even if federal employees’ wages are being withheld this time.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelance writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.
