For days, the president has been indulging in one of his made-for-TV teasers by threatening to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border. Not beef up the Border Patrol. Not tighten security at ports of entry. Just hang up a “Closed” sign and call it a day.
As the White House tells it, the failures of Mexico and congressional Democrats to stop illegal crossings have left the president no choice: The influx of drugs, criminals and other undesirables has reached the point where drastic action is required.
Trump is nothing if not a man of drastic action, or at least ominous vows of drastic action.
Dismayed critics have rushed to object that shutting the border will do nothing to solve the humanitarian strains caused by the flood of migrant families from Central America — that such a move will, in fact, make things only worse by disrupting the legal flow of people and commerce, wreaking social and economic havoc.
Such warnings are spot on. They also miss the point. In threatening to shut down the border, Trump isn’t looking to solve a crisis. His primary aim is to make life unpleasant for those who have crossed him — or simply had the misfortune to get in his way.
In politics, as in life, there are Fixers and there are Punishers. Fixers shine a light on problems or injustices and work to find ways to resolve them. Theirs is a constructive vision, one that values cooperation and pragmatism and getting stuff done.
Punishers, too, are about spotlighting problems, a skill at which they may excel even more than Fixers. But Punishers aren’t looking to make things right so much as to find someone to blame — and chasten — for the perceived wrongs.
Neither party holds a monopoly on either category. Charlie Baker, the Republican governor of Massachusetts, is a Fixer. Ilhan Omar, the freshman Democratic House member from Minnesota, is fast establishing herself as a Punisher. President Barack Obama was a Fixer, while the entire House Freedom Caucus sprang from the conviction that anyone willing to work with Obama should be cast into the abyss. Punished with extreme prejudice, as it were.
Punishers have their charms and their purpose, and whether you see them as avenging angels or vengeful demagogues often depends on whether you share their particular worldview. But every now and again, along comes a Punisher so wanton that he rattles even members of his own team. Trump is one of this rare breed.
The desire to crush those who displease him is a defining characteristic of this president. When challenged, his impulse is to lash out — preferably with personal, degrading insults. This has been on most vivid display with the myriad investigations into sketchy presidential behavior, but it also has been a hallmark of Trump’s approach to key policy issues. Border security, health care, trade — you name the debate, Trump’s answer is to stake out his position, vowing pain and regret for those who do not embrace it.
On Sunday, the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, went on television to rub Democrats’ noses in the growing border tumult and defend the president’s closure threat. “We hate to say we told you so,” he said. “We need border security, and we’re going to do the best we can with what we have.”
He also dismissed questions about the wisdom of Trump’s plan to end financial aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Complaining about the troubled nations’ failure to stop their people from fleeing north, Mulvaney brushed off administration experts who have cautioned that cutting aid would further destabilize the countries, likely worsening the migrant crisis.
Translation: Fine. No one will give us a border wall. We’ll show you the meaning of chaos.
The president’s fans cheer his pugilism, as if he was bravely defending himself — and them — against big, bad bullies. But all too often, the price is paid by the innocent and vulnerable: migrant children snatched from their parents at the border, federal workers thrown into financial turmoil by the government shutdown, farmworkers and manufacturers caught up in the trade war, the millions of Americans who stand to lose their health insurance if the administration keeps laboring to kill Obamacare.
For Trump, anyone who stands between him and his objective becomes collateral damage. And pity those considered part of an unfriendly demographic, such as the people of Puerto Rico, whom the president dismisses as a tool of the Democratic Party and mistreats accordingly. As the Senate has worked this week to hash out a comprehensive disaster-relief package, Trump’s contribution has been to fire off a series of obnoxious, dishonest tweets charging that “corrupt or incompetent” island officials have wasted epic levels of relief funding and are now hot for Democrats “to give them more, taking dollars away from our Farmers and so many others. Disgraceful!” A White House spokesman, Hogan Gidley, subsequently appeared on TV with a spirited defense of his boss’ broadside against “that country.”
As for those who actively defy the president, the goal is not simply to punish them for a single transgression but to discourage them from future rebellions. Deliver a painful enough lesson, and everyone will fall into line.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.