# The Great Big Beautiful Wall and other fictitious achievements **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [April 25, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484 "2025-04-25T15:39:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/1 "2025-04-25T15:39:34Z")
Apologies if this has been discussed before – I don’t regularly read this thread. As I expect you all know, the border wall mostly doesn’t exist, and the “Mexico will pay for it” comes out of Trump’s mistaken ideas about tarriffs. I would bet that a) the Trump apostles think that it is not only real but one of his great achievements, and b) they think so because of the Democrat’s vocal response at the time to the xenophobic aspect of the idea. If I’m right, that might lend some credibility to Carville’s idea that the Democrats should shut up for a while and let Trump run himself into the ground – Carville’s “rope-a-dope” strategy.-- because vocal opposition seems only to inflate Trump’s “achievements” in the eyes of his followers. But I haven’t a shred of evidence for this view. Does anybody know any actual facts? ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/2 "2025-04-25T16:14:07Z")
No president has done as much as this president has in his first two months. Not good, but much. ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/3 "2025-04-25T17:45:40Z")
Yeah, but they were already worshipping him after his first term. There’s a YouTube video somewhere of Gov. Christie pointing out how little Trump had actually accomplished in his first four years. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/4 "2025-04-25T17:48:13Z")
> [@Quondam\_Mechanic](#): > > Carville’s idea that the Democrats should shut up for a while and let Trump run himself into the ground Carville has some…naive ideas about politics. If this “let Trump self-destruct” approach were to work, Trump would never have won in 2016 or 2024. It’s abundantly clear that it doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/5 "2025-04-25T18:08:04Z")
In my opinion Jame Carville is a genius. His advice is actually good. Screaming at a charging elephant will not stop it. You need, at the least to run and get out the way(not my favorite idea) or gather some weapon that will stop the charging beast. Until we can get to the point where we can back up our voices with actionable practical persons we can get into high office, we have no weapon. ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/6 "2025-04-25T18:33:03Z")
FWIW, I agree with **Velocity** – Carville, as I recall, thought Trump would lose in '24. But in my OP, I was asking if anybody has any (forgive the quaint language) facts. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/7 "2025-04-25T18:38:41Z")
Gotcha. So, for clarification, are you asking for data showing that Trump’s achievements not panning out in real life is costing him support among his base? ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/8 "2025-04-25T18:54:22Z")
Or more likely that our screaming “how awful a thing you’re doing!” is convincing his base that he actually _did_ the thing. His failed attempt to overturn Obamacare might be another one (although he discreetly has left that out of his more recent rants AFAIK.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/9 "2025-04-25T19:16:07Z")
Shouldn’t the question first be: Is Trump losing support with his base? The answer is no. The latest [USA Today poll](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/04/23/trump-approval-poll-economy-100-days/83217866007/) on his approval says, “His strong supporters remained unshakable, at 96% approval.” ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-big-beautiful-wall-and-other-fictitious-achievements/1017484/10 "2025-04-25T19:51:16Z")
He comes out with fictitious BS all the time and his supporters don’t care. Hell, they then parrot it and I assume they know it is BS. Take for example his recent claims that gas is down, eggs are way down, and groceries are down. These are very tangible lies that his supporters can see everytime they fill up or go to the grocery store. Does it matter? Fuck no. > **[Fact check: Trump lies about the price of eggs, groceries and gas | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/23/politics/price-of-eggs-gas-trump-fact-check/index.html)** > > Fact check: Trump lies about the price of eggs, groceries and gas