Cards Against Humanity buys land in path of Trump's Mexican border wall
Makers of off-colour party game launch Christmas ad campaign by calling President Trump a ‘preposterous golem’
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Cards Against Humanity has purchased a plot of land on the US-Mexico border in a headline-grabbing attempt to prevent the construction of President Donald Trump’s promised border wall.
“Donald Trump is a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans,” the makers of the adults-only party game said in a statement on their website.
“He is so afraid that he wants to build a twenty-billion dollar wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In response, the company has bought a vacant plot of land in the path of the planned wall.
The purchase is part of a wider Christmas promotion with an unusually overt political overtone.
“It’s 2017, and the government is being run by a toilet,” the company says on a new website set up to promote the campaign, CardsAgainstHumanitySavesAmerica.com.
Cards Against Humanity Saves America will take aim at “injustice, lies, racism, the whole enchilada,” according to the site.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The company is seeking $15 (£11) donations from fans of the game, in which players combine off-colour phrase cards into eyebrow-raising sentences, to help achieve their goal.
Those who donate will receive six “America-saving surprises” delivered to their doorsteps in the run-up to Christmas.
“If you voted for Trump, you might want to sit this one out,” the site adds.
The promotion has struck a chord with fans of the game. “All 150,000 slots offered on the first day were sold out by before midnight on Tuesday,” Gizmodo reports.
But while the border wall obstruction may be good press for Cards Against Humanity - particularly among the game’s left-leaning core demographic of college students and young people - it is unlikely to curtail President Trump’s cornerstone campaign promise.
A legal concept called ‘eminent domain’ - known in the UK as compulsory purchase - means that federal or state governments can exercise the right to appropriate private land for government use in certain circumstances.
While a compulsory purchase order is likely, Cards Against Humanity says it does not intend to let the process go ahead easily.
“[We have] retained a law firm specialising in eminent domain to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built,” the firm said.
In addition to the problem of buying up the parcels of privately owned land along the border, Trump faces an even tougher challenge, says The Independent - convincing “reluctant members of Congress to allocate the billions of dollars needed to construct the structure.”
-
Properties of the week: pretty thatched cottagesThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in West Sussex, Dorset and Suffolk
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures An explosive meal, a carnival of joy, and more
-
The ‘ravenous’ demand for Cornish mineralsUnder the Radar Growing need for critical minerals to power tech has intensified ‘appetite’ for lithium, which could be a ‘huge boon’ for local economy
-
Why are election experts taking Trump’s midterm threats seriously?IN THE SPOTLIGHT As the president muses about polling place deployments and a centralized electoral system aimed at one-party control, lawmakers are taking this administration at its word
-
‘Restaurateurs have become millionaires’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Should the EU and UK join Trump’s board of peace?Today's Big Question After rushing to praise the initiative European leaders are now alarmed
-
Witkoff and Kushner tackle Ukraine, Iran in GenevaSpeed Read Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held negotiations aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran and an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine
-
Kurt Olsen: Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ lawyer playing a major White House roleIn the Spotlight Olsen reportedly has access to significant US intelligence
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
-
Bondi, Democrats clash over Epstein in hearingSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi ignored survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and demanded that Democrats apologize to Trump