To the editor:

Just this last week we saw Trump do a 180-degree flip flop – or more accurately a belly flop – concerning the foundation of his campaign. That is, of course, where it all started, the birther fiasco and all of the perpetual lies that accompanied it.

For five years this disrespectful low-life continued to spread this falsehood about our president as though he was a foreigner from another country and not a citizen of the United States, therefore not fit to be the president. Anybody with half a brain could see right through this line of BS, however even now 40 percent of Republicans do in fact believe this stuff.

Amazing.

Now, of course, we all know what a pack of lies Trump was pedaling, because he finally admitted Obama was born in the United States. It took the almighty Donald a total of seven seconds to clear up this matter. Think about that folks, five years of discrediting our president with his carpetbag full of lies and falsehoods, then the big moment, and we get a lousy seven seconds for him to decree that President Obama was in fact born in the United States of America, “period” like he (Trump) is some kind of a dictator who he and he alone can pronounce this kind of a fact is actually true. Of course all of us little people will accept what he has said as if it has come down from the heavens above. Somehow this all sounds like and looks like the scene in the Wizard of Oz when the truth is known and the curtain came off of the noise maker behind the curtain. Oh, did I mention the most disgusting part of Trump’s dark fairy tale? This “never say you’re sorry” piece of slim, ends this “news conference” with an even more outrageous lie, that it was Hillary Clinton who started all of this birther business in the first place. Of course the gutless wonder Trump immediately left his own self-published “news conference” without answering questions from the press. Did I mention he also had his tail between his legs as he left the room? So much for the foundation of Trump’s campaign run for the Presidency.

Moving on to the “wall.” For those who missed the extremely enlightening article in Sunday’s Sept. 18 USA Today, covering the border wall this idiot Trump has been talking about building for the last 15 months, I would suggest finding it and reading it from front to back. Of course we all know that this “dang” wall is the cornerstone of Trump’s campaign. Let me give you some highlights of the article. A conservative Republican whose citrus farm is right on the border line says the wall is unrealistic.

Locals say the existing 18-foot-high existing fence has proven largely ineffective in stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants. It’s not a deterrent and it’s not effective. The smuggler’s answer to the barrier: ladders. Duh. I guess that kind of common sense thinking is beyond the great wizard Trump.

The Border Control officers started collecting the ladders until their leader told the officers to stop because they ran out of room to put them all. Meanwhile, the flow of immigrants and drugs continued unabated. If they’re thinking of putting up a wall as a be-all, end all, they’re looking in the wrong place. The larger challenges to building this wall are many. Let me mention a few: private property lawsuits, environmental opposition, land owned by richer and politically connected owners don’t want the wall built on their property, historic buildings are grandfathered in and can’t be disturbed, major highway and well-used country roads must be crossed, who would have control of the building codes, permits and inspections.

The biggest stumbling block is money. It is estimated to cost $1-2 billion dollars. A) Where is that coming from? B) Our Congress can’t even appropriate the billion dollars it would take to fight Zika, a devastating disease affecting babies. As you can see folks, this pipe dream of Trump’s “we’re going to build a wall” might be a great line in his well-used stump speech or make a nice bumper sticker, however it’s just not going to happen. Trump must be in a medically inducted coma if he thinks Mexico is going to pay for it; what an enormous joke. Hell, the president of Mexico has already told Trump, forget it. Of course Trump won’t tell us what went on in the meeting with the president of Mexico. What’s new? His comment was “They’re going to pay for it; they just don’t know it yet.” What an outlandish thing to say. Here again I say so much for the cornerstone of Trump’s run for the presidency. Not going to happen.

Anybody who cares enough about the outcome of this election and the future of our country should be doing some kind of research on who they are voting for. If you don’t have the time for all of that, just study the film of this con artist and remember when somebody puts his or her arms around you and says “trust me,” you must take the very wise position that Ronald Reagan took with the Russians, “trust but verify.” If you don’t do your homework now, you will find out later the person who’s got the arm around you is looking for a good place on your back to insert the point of the knife.

For those of you who would like to do a little research on this scam artist I would suggest to start with, trumplies.com.

Jim Healy

Cape Coral