GOP strategist Rick Wilson says Trump's 'wet fart' Oval Office speech was 'the death twitch of The Wall cult'

People watch Trump's speech on TV in Encitas, California
(Image credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Rick Wilson is a Republican strategist, but he's decidedly not a fan of President Trump. "Donald Trump has been a political escape artist since the beginnings of his shady, scummy, shiftless life," he wrote at The Daily Beast, beginning his reaction to Trump's Tuesday night speech on immigration and the border. Usually, Trump is able to escape the consequences of his actions by creating "some larger outrage, tossing red meat to a media always eager to chase it," Wilson said, but "on Tuesday night, Trump's flaming dumpster train of distractions, lies, cons, and empty political promises flew off the rails and plunged into a mountain of burning tires in one of his worst public speeches." He continued:

The crisis he proudly created will end without a wall, and he knows it. This speech was supposed to be about forcing the national dialogue to stay on the border wall. No such luck. He reeked of defeat, clearly didn't want to be there, and it showed. Trump looked exhausted, squinty, and bored, reading in a near-monotone from the Teleprompter. It went over like a wet fart.The hysterical Know-Nothing show that flooded America's airwaves on Tuesday evening was Trumpian boilerplate: Scary immigrants are coming to kill you! Drugs are coming over the border! The man who gleefully put kids in cages tried to briefly pretend he gives a damn about migrant children in the least convincing humanitarian performance since the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. [Rick Wilson, The Daily Beast]

If you've not seen the movie of Ian Fleming's children's novel:

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"The speech can most accurately be seen as the death twitch of The Wall cult," Wilson predicted. You can read the rest of his op-ed at The Daily Beast.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.