BORDER/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WALL: “President Trump’s signature campaign promise to build a wall along the southwestern border is far behind schedule. So he has told his aides to get the job done by whatever means necessary, including by seizing land on the Mexican frontier. The president has repeatedly suggested during meetings on immigration policy that aides ‘take the land’ and ‘get it done,’ according to a person who has heard him say it. The Washington Post first reported that Mr. Trump had brought up the land seizures and had floated the idea of offering pardons to aides willing to break the law, a suggestion he has made previously when exploring ways to fulfill his campaign promises. On Wednesday [8-28-19], a senior administration official insisted that Mr. Trump had never seriously raised pardons or asked anyone to break the law. The president had been joking, the official said — ‘he winks when he does it.’”
–Katie Rogers and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, “Trump Tells Aides ‘Take the Land’ as Impatience Grows on Border Wall,” The New York Times online, August 28, 2019