I wrote a short piece for the Monkey Cage — a political science blog hosted by the Washington Post — based on my recent article on eminent domain (which I also blurbed here at DPP). The very short version is: if Donald Trump is elected president and seeks to make good on his promise to build a wall across America’s southern border, he would have to use the government’s power of eminent domain to take thousands of properties from individuals and small businesses–mostly in Texas. My research indicates that eminent domain is unpopular in the best of circumstances, but is really unpopular when the takings are for non-traditional “broad” uses that the public would not actually use. As a result, I argue that the wall would become really unpopular very quickly if Trump (or anyone else, for that matter) tries to actually build such a wall.

See the full piece here.

Editor’s Note: And, if you’re curious about hearing Trump’s perspective on eminent domain, in his own words, here’s an interesting YouTube video for you to view.