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As a quick followup to the previous post about the lies in President Trump’s immigration speech, it’s worth noting that one of them may actually backfire on him. Going into the speech, I was willing to acknowledge his point about drug smuggling, which really has increased recently and really is a problem. But I didn’t realize that nearly all drug smuggling is done via legal ports of entry (hidden in spare tires, placed in containers on legitimate commercial trucks, etc.). I’ve now been told this about a dozen times, and I realize that drug smuggling would be only marginally affected by more border fencing.

So not only was Trump’s speech probably ineffective in general, it might have wrecked one of the points that even wall skeptics like me were willing to give him. Nice work.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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