After claiming that the United States was threatened by a “drastic surge of illegal activity,” President Trump announced that the National Guard would be assigned to patrol the southern border, sparking controversy over whether the measures were truly necessary or motivated by nativist values. However, the move is motivated by the Republican party’s need for a boost during midterm elections and Trump is pointing the attention away from himself and blaming his selfish decision on a problem that does not exist.

Historically, Trump has a clear and public history battling media and ‘fake news’. Ironically enough, however, he has also had an issue with sprouting fake statistics. The “drastic surge of criminal activity” he claims to be taking place on the Southern border, in truth, does not exist. In addition, in comparison to  2009, where just under 4 million pounds of drugs entered the country, the figure forecasted for 2018 is only a fraction of that, being under 1 million pounds. If there is a dying demand on top of shrinking drug trafficking rates, then what crime surge is Trump talking about?

Last March, illegal immigration levels also faced a huge drop in response to the first few months of the Trump Administration in which migrants had avoided the border for fear of harsher law enforcement, known as the ‘Trump Effect’. So, in truth, there is no such thing as a ‘crime surge’ occurring along the border, and once again Trump is shoving fake information down our throats to help his own Republican affiliations.

The decision to deploy the National Guard came after a series of tweets by Trump on the issue of illegal immigration, one of the many criticizing the Democrat party. It read : “We are sealing up the Southern Border. The people of our great country want Safety and Security. The Dems have been such a disaster on this very important issue!” This tweet might just be hinting at Trump’s true motives.

Midterm elections are scheduled to take place November 6, just under 7 months away from when this decision was made, and the Republican party could benefit from a boost. Hence, Trump decided to follow the moves of his predecessors and implement harsher border protection, similar to Obama and Bush, in the months leading up to elections.  

However, what sets apart Trump from them is not only his history of promoting fake statistics, but the fact that after making this decision, he continues to do so. In doing this he’s continuing to publicize fake information to help his own Republican agenda at the expense of the struggling Mexican immigrant. Ironically, while Trump is one of the largest critics of fake news, he is also one of it’s most influential creators and promoters.