What ‘Arrested Development’ Got Right About Donald Trump’s Border Wall

One of President Donald Trump‘s major campaign promises was that he would build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border to reduce illegal immigration into the United States and that Mexico would pay for the wall. This premise struck a chord with a Republican fan base that would soon become Trump supporters. Trump did not build a wall, however. He is currently constructing a fence, and Mexico has yet to pay for it.

Trump, however, was not the first to conceptualize a border wall. The popular television show Arrested Development was to first to outline some of the politics behind a border wall and what the structure of such a barrier would look like. Back in 2018, the cast of Arrested Development, including David Cross, even claimed that Trump stole their border wall idea:

George Bluth aka George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) first began discussing the wall in Season 4 of the series when he attempted to bribe politician Herbert Love (Terry Crews) into publicly supporting its construction so that the struggling Bluth Company could obtain the contract. According to a 2019 Washington Post article, small North Dakota company Fisher Sand and Gravel that Trump touted obtained the $400 million border wall contract. Notice any similarities?

Lindsay Bluth Fünke (Portia de Rossi) wanted to voice her opposition to the wall, however, later slept with Love and ended up getting the attendees at one of his rallies riled up in support of the wall. She was quite pleased with the cheers either way. This is a tactic that Donald Trump has used since his initial campaign, to consistently talk about the wall to garner support from his base and secure votes.

George Sr. and his wife Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) later discussed how “we need to build that sucker 5 miles high,” but later that “it’s too tall. It will never stand.” According to a January 2020 article by USA Today, “gusty winds” blew over a portion of President Trump’s border wall with Mexico in California.

Also, at one point during the show, there was a dispute between a portion of the land purchased where the Bluth company would potentially build the wall. The Mexican Romneys claimed to own the land and would not allow the Bluth company to move forward. According to a BBC News article dated February 2020, sacred Native American burial sites were blown up by Trump in order to build his wall.

Lastly, at the end of Season 5, George Sr. and Lucille discuss how someone could easily climb the wall with a rope ladder before ordering the wall to be taken down. This actually occurred with Trump’s border wall along with many other breaches since its construction as you can see below.

Michael is a music and television junkie keen on most things that are not a complete and total bore. You can follow him on Twitter — @Tweetskoor

Stream Arrested Development on Netflix