Disorder at the border and a blundering European tour

In the 12th instalment of our series recapping an unprecedented presidency, Joe Sommerlad looks at a maligned homeland security secretary and the president’s return to Europe for D-Day commemorations

Homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen watches a Trump address on the border (AFP/Getty)

While the fallout from the Mueller report dominated the national news agenda, Donald Trump was laughed at for referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook as “Tim Apple” during a tech summit but otherwise busied himself by returning to the idea of a “crisis” in illegal immigration threatening to overwhelm the southern border.

Not content with raking in the funds for his wall over Democratic objections, the president threatened to close the border entirely on 4 April 2019 if Mexico did not act to stop the flow of illegal narcotics northwards, visiting the under-construction barrier in Calexico, California, a day later to inspect progress.

He was accompanied on that trip by his homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who had been in the job since December 2017 and found herself the reluctant face of the administration’s heartless policies, not least the separation of families.