Trump takes on the caravan

In 2014 President Obama welcomed the influx of unaccompanied minors crossing our southwestern border daily. I wrote about it for the Weekly Standard in “Disorder at the border.” I thought the scenario derived from “the fevered dreams of a dystopian novel.”

I was referring, of course, to Jean Raspail’s Camp of the Saints (1973). Mac Owens extended my thoughts in his NR column Camp of the Saints, 2014 Style?” In the novel, Mac recalled, “liberals and Christians foolishly embrace the idea that the onslaught of migrants should be welcomed into the wealth and comfort of Europe. Indeed, the French military is directed to attack those who seek to resist the horde.”

President Obama didn’t have to go that far, but he welcomed the horde. He sought to turn the invasion to his own uses. He didn’t much defend American national sovereignty in word or in deed. In his eyes, American national sovereignty is obsolete or undeserving of the president’s unambivalent support. As becomes more evident every day, more and worse is to come when the Democrats retake the presidency.

In the meantime, thanks in part to Obama, we now have a new sheriff in town and President Trump is being tested by what the headlines euphemistically refer to as a “migrant caravan.” He commented on the “caravan” via Twitter (below, more here).

President Trump’s tweet conveys his hostile attitude to illegal immigration and his support of American national sovereignty, yet it suggests he think he lacks the power to stop the caravan in its tracks. Is it possible that the Trump effect has nevertheless asserted itself? The Washington Post reports — it may even be true, I don’t know — “That caravan of migrants Trump was tweeting about? Mexico stopped it.”

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