Trump just put his son-in-law & senior advisor Jared Kushner in charge of constructing the US border wall with Mexico. We need to be careful about over-personalizing Trump’s political decisions since he administers the government of an immense capitalist system with considerable economic, social, & political interests at stake. He will not be allowed to completely bungle those interests by involving his halfwit relatives. Although as a con artist he will find enriching himself along the way & playing to his rightwing peanut gallery to be irresistible, his decisions should be seen primarily as reflecting the political perspectives of US capitalism.
There is a definite logic to putting Kushner in charge of the border wall since after Kushner’s involvement in the conflict of Israel with Palestinians there has been an acceleration of land expropriations in the West Bank, including US sanctioning of Israeli settlements on expropriated Palestinian lands in violation of international law. One of Kushner’s chief jobs as project manager on the border wall will be to pressure US Customs & Border Protection & the US Army Corps of Engineers to fast track the expropriation of private lands needed to build 450 miles of wall by the end of 2020. According to the Washington Post, ‘more than 800 filings to seize private property will need to be made in the coming months if the government is going to succeed’. That private property includes farms & ranches along the river, nature habitats, & Native American lands, including sacred ground. Native American tribes will be facing exactly what Palestinians do since it is all part of colonialism & ethnic cleansing.
No border wall! Open the damn borders. No human being is alien to us.