Walid Phares has been working as an adviser on foreign affairs for the Republican Presidential candidates for several years, starting with Mitt Romney and then with the 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump. He grew up in Beirut, emigrated to the United States in 1990, and he is an expert in several topics of foreign issues for many organizations and media.
One of the most controversial pledges of the Trump’s Presidential Campaign during 2015 and 2016 has been the construction of a wall wall along U.S.-Mexico border. “I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words”, Trump announced in his presidential announcement speech in 2015.
However, since this last summer some members of the Trump’s Campaign staff are trying to provide the Republican candidate an exit strategy for this promise. The last one has been Walid Phares, who claimed that Trump won’t actually build “a physical wall on hundreds and hundreds of miles of border”. “Trump’s wall is only symbolic, and the candidate only launched this extreme policy proposal to raise attention”, explained Phares to a corresponsal of France24 during an interview.
Additionally, Phares tried to compare the concept of promised “wall” between U.S. and Mexico with the existing “wall” in the Spanish cities of Ceuta an Melilla. “They are the borders between Europe and Morocco. That wall helps the authorities to tell anybody trying to come to Spain (and therefore to Europe) that there is a door. If you come, you must nock on the door”.
You can watch the entire interview in the following video.