President Donald Trump is taking credit for deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into U.S. airports during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, but it was his unusual explanation that quickly drew attention.
Speaking to reporters Monday before boarding Air Force One en route from Palm Beach, Florida, to Memphis, Tennessee, Trump insisted the controversial move was entirely his idea.
“Mine, that was mine,” Trump said. “That was like the paperclip. You know the story of the paperclip?”
He then launched into a historically questionable anecdote, claiming that “182 years ago, a man discovered the paperclip,” describing it as a simple invention that made people wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
The comparison raised eyebrows, as the modern paperclip design didn’t emerge until decades later. The first bent-wire paperclip was patented in 1867 by Samuel B. Fay, while the familiar oval-shaped “Gem” version appeared around 1892.
Trump used the analogy to frame his airport directive as a similarly obvious innovation.
“ICE was my idea,” he continued, saying he consulted former border official Tom Homan before moving forward. Trump also criticized reports that some agents were wearing masks, suggesting they should reserve face coverings for encounters with “murderers and thugs.”
The announcement comes as airports across the country face long wait times and staffing shortages due to the partial shutdown, which has left Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents working without pay.
Trump said the deployment of ICE agents would allow authorities to arrest “all illegal immigrants” and deliver what he described as “security like no one has ever seen before.”
It’s not the first time Trump has leaned on the paperclip story to describe his ideas. During a June event promoting his tax and spending proposal, he used the same analogy while discussing a provision tied to auto loan interest deductions, again framing the concept as deceptively simple but impactful.
The remarks quickly sparked backlash online, where critics seized on both the policy and the president’s unusual analogy, with some questioning the accuracy of his comments and others mocking the comparison outright.
“Trump might be the dumbest person ever,” one critic said. “How can a single non-moron listen to this guy speak and not immediately clock him as a senile dipsh–? It’s the biggest possible indictment of the American public’s intelligence that millions of people listen to this man and still think he’s smart,” another chimed in.
