Well, the opposite worked for President Reagan, will it work for President Trump? I. for one, believe it will. Oh, at first he will respond with something similar to what his predecessor did, but maybe without the four-letter verbiage. However, once he hears the “or else” he may be more inclined to take President Trump seriously. Here’s how it could happen, not that I would be so bold as to tell Mr. Trump how to do his job, but I am sure he has already thought of this plan.

An Open Letter to Mr. Trump

Shortly after inauguration, you meet with El presidente Peña Nieto and ask politely that he build a wall between us. He will, of course, laugh in your face as many of our fellow “residents” of America have done. At that point you walk out—the negotiations are over, which will probably be the shortest you’ve ever had.

Calmly go back to your office and sign the executive order that was previously prepared since you knew how the meeting with Peña Nieto would go. Immediately hold a press conference stating that on, let’s say 31 January 2017, any product manufactured, produced, assembled, or otherwise brought into the United States from Mexico will no longer be allowed entry into this country until an approved, impenetrable wall is built along our entire southern border.

As the one who wrote the book on making a deal, you know it sometimes helps to soften the blow of such a devastating action by offering up some crumbs. Therefore, you could add milestones that might prohibit executives at some American Fortune 500 corporations from jumping out their windows. Does anyone know how many of our American companies moved south for cheap labor, thus robbing jobs from American workers? So, to save lives, you could, for example, state that when 25% of the wall is completed, you will allow 25% of a company’s goods to cross the border, and so on with increments at 50%, 75%, 80%—go smaller here on to ensure work does not slow.

I can only imagine the screams resonating from boardrooms of such American iconic corporations as General Motors. In 2000, my bride and I went of a 43-day recreational vehicle caravan deep into Mexico. We entered through Mission, Texas and came out at Nogales, Arizona. Several miles south of Nogales (still in Mexico) we came upon the largest manufacturing plant I have ever seen. It had to be at least ¼ mile long. There was no signs revealing what kind of plant it was, but when we reached the other end of the plant, there was a huge parking lot filled with new GMC and Chevrolet pickup trucks. I have thought about that for the last sixteen years and wondered if it is still there pumping out trucks with American parts shipped into Mexico, assembled with cheap Mexican labor, and brought back into the U.S.

My guess is Peña Nieto will have lots of financial help from American corporations building that wall. Of course, you would then go about your promised actions of “encouraging” them to bring their factories back into this country so that “Made in America” means something—we all know how easily that could be accomplished—extremely high tariffs.

While you are having so much fun with unpatriotic corporate America why not add to the fray those companies who have transferred their customer service operations abroad?  I call my telephone company, my cable company, my internet company, my credit card company, and even my mortgage company and cannot understand the customer service person with whom I am talking. I tire of having to continually ask them to repeat themselves—I have even experienced their anger because I cannot understand them. Can you believe the gall for them to get mad at me because I cannot understand them? Please include them in your quest to bring America back. Our language is English, and when dealing with an American company as a consumer, I should expect to converse with someone clearly speaking my language. I have no problem having to press 1 for Spanish, but I should never, ever have to press 1 for English!

Thank you for all that you are going to do when you take office. Give em’ hell Sir!

Semper Fi,                                                                                                                          Jim Bathurst                                                                                                              USMC (Ret)

Originally posted 2016-03-29 11:29:45.