Trump pushed 'incandescently stupid' plan to send cattle over his border wall: former staffer

Former Trump White House staffer Miles Taylor claims in his new book that the former president was willing to go to extreme lengths to make sure that his beloved wall on the U.S.-Mexico border had no doors.

As Newsweek reports, Taylor writes that Trump in 2019 was upset at reports that Texas ranchers were bringing their cattle through openings in the wall so that they could graze at the Rio Grande, on the grounds that this would let "thousands" of undocumented immigrants pour into the country.

Even though then-Department of Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen insisted to the president that this wasn't the case, he demanded that his staff come up with alternative ways for ranchers to be able to access the Rio Grande.

"Give the ranchers ladders," Trump floated at one point. "They can use ladders to get to the other side, but not doors. You could use small fire trucks. Call the local fire stations, and use the ladders on their trucks to help them get over."

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Taylor recalls thinking that Trump's plan to send cows over the wall via ladders was "incandescently stupid" but he nonetheless managed to avoid laughing in the former president's face.

What's more, writes Taylor, the harebrained cow ladder scheme wasn't even the worst idea Trump had, as he even complained that military servicemembers sent to the border were not allowed to simply mow down immigrants on sight.

"When it comes to Trump, the truth is always vastly more idiotic than the fiction," Taylor claims. "He spent more time coming up with imbecilic ideas at the border than he did focusing on his job. Sometimes the ideas were stupid. Sometimes they were illegal. Often they were both."