During his campaign, President Trump’s most infamous idea of building a wall between Mexico and the United States is now becoming a formulated plan, however, it’s not going as smoothly as the president described in June of 2015:
“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
In an ABC interview aired last night, President Trump was asked about the supposed “beautiful wall,” when the construction will begin, and whether Mexico will actually pay for it.
Unsurprisingly, the president has once again changed his story (or maybe he’s just giving out some of those “alternative facts”). Now the American taxpayers will be funding the wall, but rest assured: Mexico will refund the project, which is estimated to cost about $15 billion, according to Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky).
"I'm just telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form. What I'm doing is good for the United States. It's also going to be good for Mexico. We want to have a very stable, very solid Mexico,” President Trump stated.
However, in true President Trump fashion, he offered no detailed explanation of how this will be possible, only mentioning that the negotiations will start soon. He also seems to forget the numerous times Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has stated that his country will not pay for the wall in any way, including on Wednesday, when he responded to President Trump’s announcement in a video.
The two leaders were planning to meet next week on January 31, but there are mixed responses from both parties: reports now say that President Peña Nieto has made no changes to the planned meeting, but President Trump has stated in a tweet, “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.”
We are just six days in with President Trump and already the tension with Mexico he created at the start of his campaign has grown into what could be major strain between us and them, which is exactly the kind of rhetoric our new president runs on.