Trump’s wall has become Bush’s ‘no new taxes': Conservative editor tells MSNBC how Trump could lose his base
Washington Examiner editorial director Hugo Gurdon/MSNBC screen shot

Washington Examiner editorial director Hugo Gurdon told MSNBC on Wednesday that President Donald Trump's wall has become the equivalent of a failed presidential slogan, and said the president's 2020 campaign would likely meet the same end as George H.W. Bush's in 1992.


"Is a wall still a wall if it isn't concrete and it's steel? Does it turn into a fence if you see through it?" Gurdon asked, saying that the argument was nothing but semantics.

"I think the important thing to know about the wall is it's become somewhat the equivalent of the George H.W. Bush promise 'read my lips, no new taxes,'" he added. "It helped him win in '88 and assured he lost in '92."

"'I'm going to build a wall', Trump's phrase from the election, it helped him win," Gurdon continued. "The danger for him is that if he betrays that promise, his base will desert him and he will lose in 2020. That's what the Democrats want to make sure of."

Host Mika Brzezinski asked what the Republicans would do if Trump wasn't able to obtain a concrete wall paid for in Mexican pesos, but Gurdon was dismissive, saying the president's pitch was "always an absurd thing."

Watch the video below.